CostcoWarrior

Credit Where Credit is Due 20 October 2009

I got up because I found myself writing this post in my head while lying in bed.  I’m supposed to be napping–you know, that whole “sleep while the baby sleeps” theory.  But it’s 11:30 and the sun is streaming in through all the windows and 29 years of the whole “awake during the day, sleep during the night” programming is hard to ignore after just a week.

While we’ve all heard plenty of stories of dead beat birthing dads, my husband worked hard to prove himself NOT one of them.  This post is for him–his credit for all of his work in our 9 1/2 month journey.

Thank you for holding my hair and rubbing my back every morning for 20 weeks as I violently vomited.  Thanks for willingly cleaning out the barf bucket when I didn’t make it to the bathroom.  Thanks for holding me while I bawled, and thanks for holding back your extreme excitement when it was obvious I didn’t feel the same way.  Thanks for completely and sincerely agreeing with me that we’d never do this again because I was sure no kid was ever going to be worth this torture.

Thank you for reading and researching and learning with me. Thank you for attending 12 weeks of birthing classes.  Thank you for your input and ideas in preparing for the birth.  Thank you for supporting my desire to have an unmedicated experience.  Thank you for committing to not only watch me in such pain, but to encourage me in it.

Thank you for staying with me for 33 hours.  Thank you for staying awake and never once mentioning how tired you were even though I saw the exhaustion in your eyes. Thank you for driving slowly and carefully to the hospital and for missing every pot hole and bump in the road.  Thank you for holding my hand, for stroking my hair, for rubbing my back, for holding me up, for walking me back and forth across the room.  Thank you for supporting my feet with yours whenever I sat on those stupid “comfort height” hospital toilets.

Thank you for getting another towel every time I’d drop the dry one in the tub.  Thank you for grabbing the warm blankets when I was shivering, and thank you for pulling them off 2 minutes later when I was crying because I was too hot.  Thank you for helping me breath and coaching my moaning, just to make sure I was doing it right.  Thank you for going as hoarse as me.

Thank you for getting the cold wash cloth for my head.  Thank you for getting more water, more water, more water.  Thank you for hardly stopping to eat or drink yourself.

And at that critical moment where I had absolutely no more faith in myself, where I had reached what I was sure was the end of my ability, thank you for having faith for me.  Thank you for the perfect words and the perfect plan.  Thank you for “just 20 more minutes” that you were sure I could do.  Thank you for coaching two more hours of pushing.

Thank you for whispering your love and support over and over.  Thank you for announcing “It’s a Girl!” with tears in your eyes and so much love in your face.  And thank you for letting me hold her first.

This birth was just as much work for you as it was for me.  You really are The Warrior, and I’m so humbled and grateful for all you invested in this birth without even doubting that it was your duty and your joy to fulfill.

I love you forever.

Last Minute 23 September 2009

So, we’re down to 1 week…if, magically, this little one decides to come on the 30th as summoned by the medical charts.  But we’re not really thinking about it that much and not really getting all anxious yet, because we’re a bit preoccupied with…A LAST MINUTE REMODEL!!  Welcome to our crazy life…stop looking at us like that.

We decided this week to get central air.  And a new furnace.  And a new water heater.  And basically have the utility closet completely cleared out and reinstalled in a more sensible manner.  

Whoa.  Did that come out of nowhere?  Yeah.  For us too.  Nothing like making a $10,000 decision on the fly, huh?  Well, let me just talk you into it…

Point #1:

The whole deal is through Costco (our favorite!) and backed by their satisfaction guarantees.  There are tax credits and engery rebates and Costco cash back cards that lower the end costs by 30%.  Nothing like getting money for spending money!  Which, by the way, Costco is so COOL!  Just inserting a RAVE here:  We have just a regular membership, but after they ran our Big Purchase, they personally called us to tell us if we came in THAT DAY and upgraded to the Executive membership for $12.50 (pro-rated since we’re near the end of our membership year), then we would qualify for $180 cash back in November.  Um.  DUH.  Of course we high-tailed it down to our local warehouse and made that trade.  They threw in a free tray of muffins too, so really the $12.50 was kind of a moot point in the end…How sweet is that??

Point #2:

The new machines will proactively replace our nearing-the-uncertain-time-of-death machines.  Considering our LAST large repair/replacement was super inconvenient and stressful and we’d like to avoid having that sort of experience again, we’re all energetically waving our arms in the air to vote for proactive! 

Point #3:

The installers could come right away and be done in 3 days, which is really quite important for us as NEXT WEEK and beyond we’re a bit tied up…

Point #4:

In addition to all the new machines, the closet rearrangement will make possible a future (but not-too-distant) linen closet in the bathroom.  I’m thinking this must be a purely feminine excitement, though, since all the males involved never even MENTION that beautiful possibility when they describe the project, while I’m just jumping! for! joy! at the idea of just a teensy bit more! storage! space! in this house we own.

So there you have it…new furnace, new waterheater, new AC, new closet arrangement, new Costco membership deal, new distraction from the waiting game we’re playing… It all works out in the end, and we aren’t as crazy as it may seem.

SCORE! Free Stuff! 11 August 2009

They say procrastination is evil.  I tend to agree, but then often struggle to execute the anti-procrastination.  This struggle is apparently aggravated by my pregnant condition:  Before last Thursday we had not bought a single thing for the baby.  NOT A THING.  Sure, we’ve been working on preparations like remodeling and dejunking and making room for the kid.  But as far as BABY STUFF.  Nada.  Zilch.  We had a couple of things (literally like 2 or 3 actual items) that neighbors had randomly given us.  But really we were 8 weeks away from a birth with NOTHING on hand.

After the school term…

After the big meetings at work…

After vacation…

After we finish the closets…

After we sort through our stuff…

After we fix the water line break issue…

After we celebrate your birthday…

After our next vacation…

Pretty much…AFTER everything in life settles down and we have a NON-PREGNANT moment to think and NEVERMIND that the NON-PREGNANT moment isn’t going to come until AFTER we NEED all the STUFF that we’re procrastinating purchasing thank you very much.

A less effective approach, I admit.  But I wasn’t worried.  I probably should have been.  I probably still should be.

But then a coworker comes by and asks a “silly” question because she’s sure that we’re totally already prepared, but would we happen to need a baby monitor that’s pretty much brand new that she only used for 3 weeks when her husband was laid up in bed after back surgery???  SCORE one for procrastination.  $40 baby monitor is now ours for FREE.

And then you might think that we thought “well really, it’s time to buckle down and get to it and start shelling out the hundreds of dollars that this baby stuff is going to cost”…but really we just said *AFTER* the weekend…

When a second coworker calls us up and perhaps we don’t really need it and maybe it’s a dumb question but were we planning on possibly needing a baby bassinet because they are getting rid of it and they just randomly thought of us and we don’t have to take it if we don’t want to but we can have it if we want and should he bring it to work on Monday for us???  SCORE two for procrastination.  $110 baby bassinet is now ours for FREE.  

And now since we’re on a roll, we randomly stumble on a brand new top-of-the-line breastpump for less than half price and we actually *buy* it–the first real baby stuff purchase.  And we’re now just tickled pink because for half the cost of a breastpump we also own a bassinet and a baby monitor.  Oh we feel TOTALLY prepared now, since we’ve got the sleeping part and the eating part covered, and those are really the most important, right?

Don’t worry about the carseat that the hospital won’t let us take the baby home without–there’s a TRAX stop at the hospital we could use in a pinch…

Public Bathroom Rants & Raves 24 June 2009

Perhaps you think I’m weird.  I whole-heartedly agree.

There are some things that I just want to rave about when it comes to public restrooms, though, and perhaps you’ll agree:

Baby powder air-freshener!

Touchless paper towel dispensers!

Entering a stall in the morning to find the toilet seat standing up meaning that the toilet was cleaned the night before and you are the FIRST to use it!

Yes…all of these make my heart flutter and bring a smile to my face and make me feel as if I’ve somehow got to be the luckiest public restroom user ever.  BUT then there is the most horrible public bathroom trend that I just want to rant about. 

Automatic flush toilets! 

There are some things in life that just shouldn’t be automated.

Baby Pictures 14 May 2009

Nearly a week ago we went for the routine 20 week ultrasound.  Only I was 19 weeks, not 20.  Now a week later I’m 20.  On a side note, 20 was a good year for me.  I really liked being 20.  It’s been a good pregnancy week so far too…but I digress.

So, anyway, last week we went to the ultrasound and this is what we saw:

If you have a hard time with these black and white modern art specimens, this is the baby’s profile with a little nose pointing north.  I like the nose.

We also got a pic of the baby’s first halloween costume choice:

That would be a scary skeleton…but at least the kid has a face, right? 

We chose not to learn the gender of the baby, but we heard tons of “they always slip up and spill the beans to you” stories, so I knew I had to prepare.  I made up a sign that said “Shhh…it’s a SURPRISE!!”  TW was a bit embarrassed by it and wouldn’t hold it, which I found just fascinating considering the fact that he has no problem holding my purse. 

At the appointment, I waved the surprise sign at everyone who came into the room.  Apparently that made me famous, because when the OB came in toward the end of the appointment she laughed and said “Yeah, I heard about the sign.”  Everyone was really kind and extremely informative.  We learned a few things about the kid too:

1. Baby is real.  If all the other clues could be explained away, the picture stands firm.
2. Baby really likes its feet–was just holding on to them and wouldn’t let go even though the doctor needed to see the appendages separately.
3. Baby is really relaxed and mellow (remind anyone of TW ??) just likes lying in a ball at the bottom of the uterus.
4. Baby is really stubborn (remind anyone of WW??) just doesn’t want to move from its warm comfy spot even if the doctor keeps poking and jiggling and bouncing.  Just.isn’t.going.to.cooperate.
5. Baby is really healthy and has all body parts in appropriate places (as verified by the doctor, since it just looked like black and white fuzz to us most of the time…)
6. Baby is right on schedule with estimated dates. 

Whether it was the sign or the intelligent staff, we made it through successfully clueless on the gender topic.  We dropped the sign off at our doctor’s office afterward, so they could tape it in my chart to avoid any future slip ups.  (Yes, I watched them put it in the chart…)

Sorry if the missing gender announcement disappoints you , but we just couldn’t ruin the suspense and give up the END in the MIDDLE.  You know you hate it when someone spoils the ending of a movie or book, so we won’t spoil the surprise of this story either.  Also, we apologize if the missing gender announcement makes gift giving more difficult for you, but we totally believe that the color gr$$n goes with just everything.