June is going to be a busy month!

I cannot believe it's almost June. Where has this year gone? In one day, I'll be able to say that our baby boy gets here in three months. Craziness.

Like the title of this post states, June is going to be one heck of a jam-packed month for DH and I. Buckle up...here goes the list.

-June 2nd, DH and I are going with my mom, niece, and aunt to a Scottish festival. Being of thoroughly Scottish descent, I am super pumped about this one.

-June 9th, we leave for Florida. We'll spend a couple days at Disney World, and then spend some time with DH's family down there before heading back on the 15th.

-June 13th is DH's and my 3rd anniversary. I have no idea what we'll do to celebrate, but hopefully we'll be able to get away from everyone and celebrate with a nice dinner or something.

-June 21st is my birthday...and also the summer solstice, so that's neat.

-June 26th is my next prenatal visit, and the day that I have to do the dreaded one-hour glucose test. Ack. Hopefully my fundal measurements will be up to par; I was measuring on the "very low end of normal" last time and the doctor seemed mildly concerned.

-June 27th, I will officially hit third trimester! Wow. Wild that it's so incredibly close.

Did I miss anything? It's going to be a whirlwind of activity. Somewhere in there, I'm sure we'll be working on Wee Laddie's room a little more. It's still nowhere near being finished at all. We also still haven't picked a name. I think we've chosen a first name, but middle names are still up in the air and we're not telling anyone the names until we've definitively decided on one. (Which is honestly because we don't want opinions, and we figure the best way to avoid that is to say, "This is his name. Period. We have decided.")

Obligatory bump shot. This was yesterday at 24 weeks...I really love the top I'm wearing. My mom got it for me from Motherhood Maternity.

The long, hot weekend.

It's southern KY in May, which means the humidity and heat are through the roof. Thank goodness for good air conditioning. Despite having grown up in the Mid-south, I have never gotten used to the mugginess. But, I love the South anyhow and I plan to stay here for as long as I can...it ain't perfect, but it's home!

We have lofty plans for the weekend...and I say "lofty" because it'll be kind of crazy if we actually get it all done. We're finally going to get working on Wee Laddie's room! We've partially sanded some drawers from some of his furniture, but absolutely nothing else has been done to get ready for him other than getting a registry partially done. My mom is coming up tomorrow morning and we'll haul some of the furniture outside and sand the heck out of it. (It's BIG furniture with a lot of curves and rounded edges, so it's kind of a pain in the butt to sand.) I wish we could go ahead and paint everything, but I don't want to paint until I have his bedding so that I can get the colors to coordinate. We do have one piece of furniture that we can go ahead and get done - a little end table that I'll paint red and stencil the Rebel symbol from Star Wars on top. I am so excited to just get his room done and ready for him.

Wee Laddie still doesn't have a name. DH and I MAY have one picked out but we're not 100% sure yet. I still just don't feel comfortable telling the world until after he's born...I have this big fear that I'll commit to a name and then look at him and say, "Oh, he doesn't look like a _______." It just seems like such a huge job to pick a name for a new little person who has never existed before. I don't want to get it "wrong".

Bump time! 23 weeks as of Wednesday...only a few more days til viability!

Good news, everyone!

Fifty internet points if you read the title in Professor Farnsworth's voice.

The good news is that, Friday, our genetic counselor finally called. The test results show that baby boy is chromosomally normal! There's technically a 1% chance that the test could be wrong, but based on all the things we know at this point, I feel pretty secure in trusting those results. When I got off the phone with her, I just stood and cried with pure relief and joy. It feels SO good knowing that, no matter what sort of issues may arise someday, we won't be dealing with chromosomal abnormalities that will prevent him from functioning normally.

Baby has been extremely active lately. He's been kicking and punching around so much in the last couple days, which I kind of enjoy. It's awesome having the reassurance that he's ok in there. On Sunday, DH woke me up from my nap and laid his head on my belly. Baby boy kicked him right in the head! It was kind of cute. :)

I'm up about 12 lbs and it's starting to freak me out. I've always struggled with body image issues and it's hard for me to gain weight without panicking. I know that it's what Wee Laddie needs, though, so I'm going to just try to cut back on the sweets and unhealthy snacks so that I know my weight gain is not from being a pig. (I always liked sugar before pregnancy, but oh man. I could go through a tub of ice cream and a six-pack of soda a day if I didn't stop myself.) I also don't want to deal with gestational diabetes. They won't be testing me for that for another four or five weeks, so I need to keep myself in check.

We're sorta kinda starting on his nursery. Sorta. I started sanding down a little side table today that we're going to use in his room. DH had the idea that we should stencil the Rebel symbol on the top since it's a Star Wars room, which is an awesome idea. Love being married to a fellow nerd!

Bump picture from 22 weeks, which was last Wednesday. I'll hit 23 tomorrow, which means I'm about 8 days away from V-day! Yeah!

My butt hurts.

Or, more specifically, my sacroiliac joint hurts. On the left side.

I started having a weird pain when I was about 10 weeks pregnant. It'd only show up when I was leaning over and lifting something. And it hurt, but not badly. It was almost the sensation of needing to pop a joint, but it was in a place that I couldn't pop.

Flash forward to now. I'm 22 weeks pregnant, and the pain has gotten DRASTICALLY worse. It's happening daily, and at weird random times. When I take a step, when I sit down, when I get in bed, when I do absolutely nothing at all to exacerbate it. After DH witnessing me gasping in pain and clutching the counter while waiting for the stabbing sensation to end, he suggested that I look into a visit to the chiropractor.

Here are the things that I learned today:

1. I love the chiropractor.

2. My sacrum is crooked and deviates to the left, which is what's causing the pain. It's hitting a nerve occasionally and causing the crazy pain.(Incidentally, my mom has the same thing, but on the right. It started when she was pregnant with me and has never quite gone away.)

3. That doctor popped places that I didn't know could be popped, and it was incredible. All of my vertebrae were sighing with joy.

4 TENS units are awesome. Never had electrotherapy before but he put a little shock pad on my butt and had me sit with it for a while. I honestly loved the sensation...tingly and kind of weird but made my muscles feel so relaxed.

Hopefully, my butt issues will be resolved with a few more adjustment sessions. I'm going back again tomorrow, and I'm already kind of looking forward to it. Hopefully it won't end up costing us an arm and a leg...our insurance is a little flaky about what kind of chiropractic care they'll pay for. But thankfully my SIL works for this office and might be able to work out a deal for us. The doctor wants me back three times a week for two weeks, and he seemed fairly confident that it should at least drastically alleviate the pain, if not totally get rid of it. I'm still feeling some of the pain at the moment, but it's not reaching the extreme that it normally does, so at least it's dulled.

Also, fun side note: my midwife told me that blood pressure can be really low during 2nd trimester because of the weird way your body works. Mine today? 99/60. I have NEVER had a reading that low...normally it's around 127/80 or so. I feel like a freak of nature...I have MORE blood than normal, but way lower blood pressure? Weird.

Guess I'm going to be a terrible mom.

The crud that people will say online never ceases to amaze me. And infuriate me. So this post is going to be a vent...if you don't want to hear my griping, feel free to look away now. ;)

I started a thread on TB asking for advice on how to deal with my cats. They've been acting insane lately (read my previous posts for examples) and it has escalated to peeing outside the litter box when we weren't home. I don't want to get rid of the cats because I truly think they're supposed to be a commitment, but at the same time, I'm at my wit's end with their behavior.

Someone mentioned that I should take them to the vet to make sure they don't have a UTI, and I responded that due to some financial struggles at the moment, I can't afford a vet visit. HUGE MISTAKE, apparently. A handful (not all) of the posters started saying how they feel bad for my cats, since apparently I'm a terrible person who is irresponsible and was ill-prepared for taking care of animals.

Ok, here's my question. How was I supposed to predict our lack of funds? Am I supposed to be able to see the future and know how our finances are going to pan out at every turn? Am I supposed to know that DH will get passed up for promotions, that our cars will start breaking down suddenly, that my medical bills will be crazy, that we'll need to pay for testing to see if our unborn child has chromosomal defects? Apparently, the answer is "yes". One of the women actually went so far as to call me a "b*tch" and ask how I plan to support my baby if I don't have the money or patience to deal with my cats peeing on the carpet.

Are you stinking kidding me? This just makes me so irritated. How dare you imply that I'm a bad mother because I'm having a baby without being affluent. That doesn't mean our son won't have what he needs. Not everyone is blessed with being upper middle class. I'd say that, honestly, we're probably lower middle class. We waited until we had health insurance to try for a baby. He'll have what he needs to be happy and healthy. And you know what? Poor people can still be great parents. My mom was so desperately poor when I was a kid that we were on food stamps and relied on free healthcare for a while. And she was STILL an awesome mom. All of my clothes were second-hand, but I was provided for and I was a happy kid.

I hate arrogance. I'm not a perfect person. I don't have the perfect life. I don't have the perfect finances or the perfect home or the perfect situation. But don't you dare say that I'm irresponsible for having a child at a less-than-perfect time in my life. You do things your way, I'll do them mine. And honestly? If we waited for the perfect moment, we would have never become parents. Because there's no such thing as perfect.

End rant.

And so begins the momentous task...

...of registering for baby stuff.

Ack. How is it already time for this?!? I swear, I just found out I was pregnant a few weeks ago, right? What? It was five months yesterday? Wait, that means he'll be here in...*counts on fingers, blood drains from face*...oh my gosh. In four months.

I am seriously behind on this "preparing for baby" stuff. We've done approximately one thing to get ready for him: nothing. Big, fat, nothing. Well, ok, we've partially sanded some furniture that we're going to repaint. But that's it, and it's nowhere NEAR being done. I think all along, I've had this sense of, "Oh, it's fine, we have plenty of time before he gets here." But then suddenly, his arrival is only 4 months away, and we still have EVERYTHING to do. And I may or may not be freaking out really badly.

Our plan is that we're going to bust it in gear on Memorial Day weekend and just get it all done. Finish sanding the furniture, hopefully get it painted (so thankful that FIL has a paint sprayer we're borrowing, because it will be so much faster), get the nursery arranged how we want it, put up the decorations we have so far, and then just sit back and wait. We're probably going to order the crib in the next couple weeks, too, so at least we've chosen one and know it's for sure the one we want. And this weekend, while we're up visiting MIL, we're going to go register for baby stuff. Honestly, I have no stinkin' clue what we need. I always think of the big things and forget small stuff like diaper cream and wash rags. So I'm basically just going to slowly walk through every blessed isle of the store and ask myself, "Do I need this? Do I need this?" It was hard doing a wedding registry because we couldn't even think of enough stuff to register for, and we ended up going back to add onto it because people bought almost all of our stuff and they were running out of stuff to get us. (I was given FOUR wedding showers. Four. No wonder we ran out of stuff!) I'm being given two baby showers, so hopefully it won't be a problem this time.

And in case everyone is wondering (since everyone in real life seems to be wondering), no, Wee Laddie does not have a name yet. And we probably won't name him until he's born. I'm afraid to give him a name and then him come out and just not seem to match his name. And also, DH is super non-committal about deciding on anything right now. He thinks we should wait for the name to "come to us"...I laughed. Sure, DH, we'll do that. Or maybe not.

Time for the obligatory belleh picture. This was taken Wednesday at 21 weeks. Still no stretch marks, and I'm feeling pretty good most of the time! Let's hope both those things are true in the next few weeks!

This might be an unpopular post...

I guess this subject has been on my mind a lot lately, what with all the junk in the media about politicians bashing each other and whatnot. Subjects like taxes, budget cuts, gay marriage, birth control, etc etc are getting everyone worked into a frenzy. I shouldn't be surprised anymore at the lengths people will go to to attack someone else who believes differently than them, but I still am for some reason.

Here's what bugs me. I never, NEVER see anyone saying, "Oh, those stupid Muslims/Orthodox Jews and their hate for everyone who doesn't believe like them. They're all a bunch of hypocrites." Seriously, never once seen anyone bash those two groups. But Christians? Apparently, fair game. From how the news presents things, we're all a bunch of jerks who just hate anyone who is different or believes something other than what we believe. Yes, I am a Christian. I was baptized when I was 17, and I do my best to follow God and be faithful to Him. I believe the Bible, and I try to obey the commands that God put in there for me to follow. Does everyone agree with me? No. And that's their right. We were all given free will, and I would never try to force anyone to agree with me outside their own volition. But me being faithful to MY beliefs, which are based on the religious text that I believe in, should NOT make me a target for ridicule and mocking. Why does it matter if I'm a right-wing conservative and so-and-so is a far-left liberal? If I can respect your right to make different choices than me, why can't you respect mine? Bashing me and calling me "intolerant" or "close-minded" will not change my mind about where my religious and moral loyalties lie. A little mutual respect can go a long, long way.

I understand that many, MANY people disagree with what the Bible says, or at least large chunks of what the Bible says. And like I said, that's their right. God didn't force me to believe in Him...I came to that conclusion on my own. And since I wasn't forced, I am not going to try to do that to anyone else. But please don't make the false assumption that Christians/conservatives/whoever are all unloving, close-minded jerks who just want to shove their faith down everyone else's throats. I respect everyone as human beings, whether or not I agree with or like their political and/or religious beliefs. Yes, some "conservatives" make a really bad name for the rest of us. (I really, really dislike Mitt Romney. And Gingrich. And everyone else on the Republican ticket except for maybe Ron Paul.) But I could also name some pretty cruddy people on the liberal end of the spectrum. It's unfair to make blanket categorizations about the hearts and minds of people who are right or left on the political scale. And obviously, I'm not saying that liberals are just all mean to conservatives...I've heard an abundance of conservatives make idiotic "you're all ______" statements, as well. There is no one group that all fits nicely into the exact same category, ever.

I guess what I'm saying is, I respect your choice to believe differently than me, and all I ask is the same courtesy in return. Respect shouldn't just be reserved for people of your same political party or religious order. Even if you think my beliefs are the dumbest thing ever, and you think I'm stupid for having them, at least appreciate the fact that it's my choice, just like your beliefs are your choice.

99 Things

I stole this from Breanna over at Counting Blessings. I'm not great at coming up with creative blog posts on my own (which is probably why I have about 40 followers) but I thought this looked like a lot of fun! The bolded are things that I have done...hopefully I'll get to cross a few more off the list in the future.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Have Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie (Does it count if it was an indie short film?)

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle

79. Have Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Got a tattoo

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

I really, really hate my cats.

So, at what point is it acceptable to give these demons from Hell back to the Humane Society?

I am so sick of the destruction. Nothing is safe from them. Want to have tissues? Screw that, they'll rip them to shreds and leave it for you to clean up. Shoes? They'll rip those up, too. (Thought that was just dogs, right? Wrong.) Books, houseplants, electrical cords, a doll from Korea that someone brought me, the trashcan in the bathroom, are all fair game in their eyes. No matter how high of a shelf I put something on, they'll get it if they want it.

Today was the final straw. I am honestly thinking about relinquishing ownership because of this. (And I know that's awful, because pets are supposed to be a lifetime commitment, but what else can I do when they're literally destroying our belongings?) I have a record player that was FIL's back in the day. I have to keep the cords piled up on top of it and covered with a box, because I know the cats have a tendency to shred anything they can get their paws on. But today, I was in the kitchen doing dishes, and I wanted to listen to the "Thriller" album. So I set up the record player, and cleaned the kitchen. Within about 10 minutes, they had gotten a hold of one of the cords on the turntable, stripped it, and ripped it into three separate pieces. It's beyond repair. This record player has a lot of sentimental value to me because I'm very close with my FIL, and I am in tears, I'm so furious. It's only 11:50 and it's already been a sucky day, and this just makes it even worse.

I just don't know what else to do at this point. We have tried spray bottles of water as a deterrent to bad behavior, and they don't care. We've tried vinegar in the spray bottles. They don't care. We've tried spanking. They don't care. We've tried everything we can think of, but they still just do their own thing and destroy our stuff, no matter how hard we try to give them second and third and fortieth chances. I'm so frustrated that I could just pull my hair out.

Can anyone offer ANY solutions? Is there anything left that I can do to keep them from being so destructive so that I don't feel like my only option is to get rid of them? I know we could try the claw cap things, but honestly, the problem is their teeth, not their claws. They're good about only scratching the scratching post and their climbing tower, but if it can fit in their mouth, they'll chew it to pieces before you even realize they've got it. (My record player parts, for example...) We can't afford cat behavioralists or any crap like that...we're having a very hard time financially and that alone has made me consider getting rid of them, so the cost of care (with a strained budget) and their bad behavior is not making them very secure in their living arrangements. I don't want to get rid of them, I really don't. But I also cannot deal with the anxiety of waking up every morning and literally going to check and see what they've done during the night. Can you crate train cats? Shock collars? Anything?

Between our finances, waiting for test results to see if our little boy has Down's Syndrome, and badly behaved pets, I am feeling incredibly worn out and stressed. I just want to crawl in bed and sleep until everything magically resolves itself and I don't have to deal with a bunch of junk.

ETA: Now that I've calmed down, I'm probably not going to get rid of the little beasts. (I think.) They get all pathetic and apologetic and I just feel too guilty. But still, if anyone has any advice at all, I'd love to hear it. If they tear up more stuff I might change my mind again.

Half baked, and it's a boy!

Our anatomy scan was yesterday, and we're having a SON! I'm so incredibly happy to know who's in there and to be able to call him "him" and "he" now.

The scan didn't go as flawlessly as I had hoped. He's got an ecogenic intracardiac focus (EIF) which is basically a bright spot on his heart. It's not considered a birth defect and is actually pretty common, but it can be a soft marker for Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome). On top of that, he has a choroid plexus (brain) cyst, which again, isn't a birth defect and is pretty common, but can be a soft marker for Trisomy 18 (which is, terrifyingly, "incompatible with life"). If he had only had one or the other, they wouldn't have really been concerned at all. But since he had two different soft markers for (albeit unrelated) chromosomal disorders, they told us that we have the option of doing some testing to rule out the possibilities of Trisomy 18 and 21.

DH and I met with a genetic counselor after our prenatal visit, and she was wonderful. She really thoroughly explained to us that we are still at a pretty low risk for either condition, partially because of my age and partially because baby boy has NO other markers for either condition. His musculoskeletal system is perfect, no holes in his heart or stomach, brain is perfectly formed, both kidneys are there, etc. We also had the chance to watch him swallow a few times in our ultrasound, and to see him splay his fingers out, which are two things that Trisomy 18 babies struggle with and can't do, respectively. But, even though we're still fairly low risk, I cannot rest easy until I KNOW that my little boy is safe and sound. We're going to do a test called MaterniT21, which is extremely new (only been around since October, I think) but also extremely accurate. At worst, we'll have a 99.8% shot at a correct diagnosis. And that's at worst. It's a really expensive test...our insurance will still be paying well over a thousand dollars, but our "copay" is going to be $230-something. That's a lot for us, especially at this point, so DH's mom graciously is footing the bill for the test. This is her first grandbaby...I think she's just as anxious to know that he's ok.

So, as scary as that all is for me, I'm still elated to know that I'm carrying a sweet, tiny, beautiful little boy. Even if he has some kind of condition that we are going to have to prepare for when he's born, he's mine and I am so in love. We haven't picked a name yet, and we might not settle on anything until he's born. I'm notoriously bad about making decisions so I'm afraid to commit to anything at this point.

Here are a couple pictures of our "wee laddie",(lol) as my mom is calling him. We're 20 weeks along today, which is exactly halfway! Woohoo for progress, right?

I know the 3D ones will look better when we're further along but I still think his little nose and lips are the cutest thing!