Not My Baby

Kids these days! Sheesh!
Actually...PARENTS these days! Sheesh!

I've been collecting these to present to you on a blog that I'll title "Not My Baby". Let me start by saying that I can be open minded. I can appreciate funky rainbow toe socks as much as the next person. I like things a little different and cutting edge, but some of these baby - and I mean infant, sweet, innocent infant - items are just wrong! What small child wants to wake up from a nap distressed and see scary fish with razor sharp teeth eating other fish, ON THEIR CRIB BEDDING!?

Now, the hats are borderline cute...but still a little kooky. And the skull and crossbones/motorcycle gang/drinking refrences clothing and accessories are everywhere it seems. Those types of designs are what makes my eyes pop out of my head as I shop for pastels and flowers and puppy dogs and only the highest quality cotton to grace my child's skin. And ruffles in case it's a girl...lots of ruffles!

I'll just say "to each, their own". And I'll stick to the puppy dogs and flowers, thank you.

The Funnel

Last week I had an OBGYN check up. I am 28 weeks now and beginning my third trimester! My goodness, can it be true? I SWEAR that just yesterday we were staring at a pee stick wondering if we really knew what we were getting into. Time has flown right into my final 'mester and I imagine I'll be saying the same thing in two months when I am holding my new baby. Sorry, gotta grab a tissue real quick.

Ah, so the appointment last week...
I had a sono, which I've been getting often to watch a cyst or mass on my right ovary. The ovary is fine (relatively speaking) with no changes in the size of the cyst and no pain associated with it, but Doc. is keeping her eye on it. While taking measurements of that, and amniotic fluid, and baby, my sonographer came across a cervical funnel. This is not so bad but definitely not good. It is an opening in my cervix which appropriately enough looks like a funnel as it narrows down and opens into "the canal". I'll save you the pain of hearing the "V" word. It's just not one of the world most beautiful words, I know.

So the crazy part is when Mom and Josh and I are sitting in the examination room waiting to see Doc, and she walks in and shows us the picture of this fascinating (sarcasm) cervical funnel and tells me I have the possibility of going into pre-term labor in the next two weeks. Point blank. Staring straight at me. So Josh and mom and I looked at each other and started laughing! I guess shock/nervous laughter is more accurate but I really was not expecting those words to come out of her mouth, and it was a little funny in an ironic sort of way. But mostly I was floored! She said there would be more testing (called a fetal fibronectin test) and a follow up sono in one week. No bed rest was ordered, life was to go on as normal. I wasn't having anything remotely close to contractions or cramping so that was excellent. Even more excellent was that my cervix was not thinning. It was nice and thick at something like 38 cm (out of 40ish max)...how's that for too much information?!

On Monday I called to check on the test results and Nurse Tiffany broke it to me that my sample wasn't sent to the lab frozen like it should have, so there were no results. Oh man, didn't she know that we paced the house all weekend wondering if it was time to go ahead and pack a hospital bag? Didn't she know that people's lives were at stake here?! Just kidding, everyone's life was just fine...in fact the baby was at a point developmentally where everything was up and running and had something happened even the lungs were developed enough to survive in the outside world. Never mind that my dearest only weighed 2 lbs. 8 oz., AND the baby's room wasn't ready!

Today we returned for the follow up sono. And like a good friend, the smiling sonographer said "Oh hon, there's nothing there. It's strong and thick in there. Ohhh, the baby just elbowed me!" She was very jovial which I could appreciate given the news. Then, just like every other time, the magic happened...we saw the eyes, and the heart, and the feet and fingers and spine and the cheeks, and finally the tech swears our little turkey stuck it's tongue out at us. I think it was actually licking its lips because of the chocolate covered Krispy Kreme that I had just shared with it. Sorry, gotta go grab a tissue again. Gosh I love that baby.

Doc confirmed the nonexistent state of the funnel and told us that either it was nothing in the first place, or perhaps the baby was putting too much pressure there and it opened a bit. It was a 7mm opening to be exact...less than a centimeter. Funny how less than a centimeter can represent so much. At first, for a split second I dreamed of how cool it would be to have my baby two months early. But making a human is a little different than, say, taking cookies out of the oven a few minutes early. Or leaving the nail salon before you know you're nails are really good and dry. Wouldn't you agree? Luckily our baby decided to stay nice and cozy in my belly a bit longer - or my body chose not to kick out its tenant too early after all. I may have to sit down and have a talk with "someone"; don't they know that I am the one in charge here? So maybe I'm not the one in charge...these shows of perspective are quite enlightening.

Stupid Horse

I guess I have a love hate relationship with my hobby horse. And for future reference - Shannon, Michael and Peter - the horsy will be referred to as mine because in my head it always was mine. I guess that is the spoiled and loved to death and "no one in the world but me" sibling syndrome you guess instilled in me. Sometimes I think you guys loved me more than mom and dad. But I digress.

So it started as and was always a love relationship with the horse. But once I decided that I had to have it for my unborn (but conceived) child and that it would be the perfect weekend project to re-pad and re-cover the darn thing, it turned into a hate relationship in about 5 minutes. Let. Me. Tell. You. That thing is nasty! Is stinks realllly bad, like smelly feet and nasty cheese all mixed together. It is dusty and disintegrating. And I know it's not the horsy's fault, but it's really hot in the garage where I was working. Since then a fan has been taken out there to keep us cool during various jobs. These things were expected, however, since the poor dear is 40 years old (at least 37 for sure) and a little wood work was expected but lordy. See last picture - what in the heck happened to you horsy? I will trudge ahead and I will laugh and smile every time my children ride the darn thing. For years to come!

A few P.S's for the close:
Yes, I know his face looks funny painted like that. Not too realistic, eh? What's up with those BIG black eyes?
Yes, we do watch TV in the garage. It goes good with ping pong and beer (or soda).
Yes, it does hurt your crotch realllly bad to sit on him. We'll spring for extra good padding!

The Shoes and a Drill...

This morning I woke up nice and early. Who else is laughing with me? I don't wake up nice and early...I hit the alarm no fewer than 5 times (which really is a random guess, it's too early to be counting or anything else productive) between 5:40 and 6:30-ish and then started to wake up. Josh rolled over and not even half awake this is what he said.

"There was a wierdo guy across the street drilling holes in my car. He really made me mad."

I said "what are you talking about?" and Josh told me he just had a crazy dream. Haha! I figured this was gonna be good. I asked why he would do that to Josh's car (and why wasn't it in the garage, anyway?).

"He was just walking around close to my car and had a drill, and he kept pushing the button and he really messed up my car. I was mad."

This is so funny since he is more than half asleep and probably doesn't exactly know what he is talking about, so I egg him on. I say that I'd be mad too and ask if the "wierdo" culprit fixed it.

"No, he wouldn't fix it. But it's ok, I got his shoes."

I had to laugh out loud at that! He got his shoes! Well thank goodness! Some collateral for the damage to Josh's beautiful car! I come from a long line of wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-talking-about-what-just-happened-in-a-dream family members and we really get to laughing at each other. Here's another for the collection, but it may not be quite up there with Michael's middle of the dream night stories. We are still talking about some of those from years and years ago!

Before Josh rolled back over and went to sleep again, he said...referring to the shoes..."They weren't expensive but I got 'em."
Well, good job, baby...good job.

Showing Off My Babies!

Connor Got New Glasses!
Who can resist this face? Certainly not me!


















I Didn't Know That Angels Drove Monster Trucks, But Apparently They Do!
Look at those ruby red lips!























The Best Neices Ever!
Another angel among us...our Lindsey.




















Keep Those Feet Up, Jessie!
She is so beautiful inside and out.

Tootin' My Own Horn

Toot, toot! We had left over topiaries from our wedding that the florist made with fresh white roses and baby pears for some of the tables at the reception. Recently, I fixed one up with silk and faux (sounds so much nicer that FAKE) flowers, eucalyptus seed, and leaves for our entry way - or where ever I could find a spot for the darn thing. We just don't have many shelves or other surfaces to display many home accoutrements but this one settled in nicely by the front door. For the crafters out there...some details:


I haven't figured it exactly, but my estimate is that something like this would be much more reasonable to purchase complete than to make your own. One would like this project who finds it relaxing or who finds it to be an outlet for creativity. It becomes hard when you have a sphere like this that you want to look good on all sides. Or if you're like me...you place it in front of a mirror for all the world to see the reflection of the partially complete back side! Just don't look there if you come over, ok?! Also, I couldn't decide how many varieties of flowers to combine. My nature is to put more variety, or at least a bunch of variety with similarity (hows that for ambiguity..."variety with similarity", hahaha!) but here I went kinda wild and threw in a few magnolias and I am still deciding if it was a bit much.


Technical details: The container is filled with floral foam other various filler material and the stem is hand made from twigs and woody vines - and stuck in the foam. The ball is green floral foam with green moss glued on, and more green moss tucked around at the base of the stem. I tried for some pears there at the base but they wouldn't sit to my satisfaction. All of the material covering the ball of the topy (short for topiary) is secured by one way or another and layered and fussed with until perfect! I used pins, floral sticks, and a glue gun, and had a Dr. Pepper for back up. Then if you are like me...you get tired of all this fussing and decide that perfect or not, you are done!

Dr. Pepper and your favorite CD highly recommended. Viola!

It's 11 O'Clock (AM)...Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

Why, yes, indeed I do! My child is right here in my belly all snuggly warm! I thought I'd update you all on the latest and greatest achievements of Baby Blachly. Most impressively (to me) is Baby's gift of sight! Baby's eyes were fused shut around week 11 and now, around week 27-28, he can open and shut them! Perhaps I am easily impressed, or perhaps I am biased and simply think that my baby is the best ever, but that is a pretty cool development. I've been feeling very rhythmic, twitch-like movements, too fast to be arms stretching or legs kicking. I am feeling my baby hiccup! These hiccups are not quite the same as what Baby will experience after delivery. These are helping the lungs continue to develop and occur quite often in utero. They also say that our baby has developed a regular wake and sleep cycle...which very well may be the same as mine since I haven't been woken up at night yet. "Yet" being the operative word here.

Josh and I went and registered for our bambino this weekend. Registering for things for people to buy you, practically begging for gifts, just seems so fundamentally wrong for so many reasons. At the same time, I really enjoy giving gifts to people during super momentous times in their lives. It especially helps knowing that I am shopping off a registry for something special that they will like because they have picked it out. Right? So I don't know what my hang up is...but panic attack in almost full swing, we headed to Babies R Us and Target to register for some basic necessities. I have to admit it was really fun looking at all the sweet, and fun, and cute, and crazy baby things. We've been VERY lucky so far to have received the things we have and I can't imagine where we would be without the hand-me-downs and borrowed "equipment"!

Josh and I have chosen to start with g-diapers which are the latest and greatest in earth friendly diapers. They are not cloth diapers (before you fall over thinking I am crazy), but are flushable and biodegradable and have won me over with their awesome website and rave reviews. I've researched them a lot and heard both the good and the bad. After educating myself and Josh in all the horrible ecological facts of disposables, I am simply devastated at the hit our earth is taking. We recycle everything else in our house so this only makes sense for our lifestyle. I am game to consider a cloth diaper service as well once I get the hang of being a mommy. I've priced them and it fits into our budget just as well as any other method of diapering. I think we would like to have some regular disposables on hand for an "upset tummy", or the occasional diaper-challenged person who stays with the baby and doesn't want to use our g-diapers. Anyway, I am very excited to try them out and I am open for any suggestions on other eco-friendly diapering methods! Check out their website if you'd like, http://www.gdiapers.com/, it's a very cool site.

Going to close for now and get ready for lunch. I have some delicious left over’s from our steak dinner last night. I copied Edie's delish baby portabellas and zucchini with marinara side dish, and of course we had mashed potatoes (cause what's steak without potatoes?). Josh thought we needed a good steak dinner in honor of the Cowboys season opener! It's a good thing they won and all I have to say is boy, that Tony Romo is one cutie patutie!!!

***Love and Recycling To All...and Go Cowboys!***

Labor Day was A Laborious Day

We were among the lucky few that benefited from Shannon and David's neighbor's generosity with their abundance of sandstone rocks. Lucky because once everyone got wind of the free landscaping stones they went fast! Perhaps not everyone would call us lucky to have recieved rocks, and perhaps Josh and I didn't feel so lucky towards the end of our laboriousness, but it saved us a ton of money in the end and that was what counted! Besides that, Shannon and David loaded them up in their truck and Shannon and the girls drove them from Argyle to Plano for us! Talk about curbside service! And service with a smile! And being forever in debt! Actually, the debt can be paid back in a number of ways, I am sure. But for now...we have a beautiful rocky edged garden.

Josh was able to explore all sorts of ways to crack up the rocks. Many were HUGE and the task lay ahead of us to break them down to fit where we needed them. A bunch could be cracked on each other, while others took the hand held mini jack hammer Bob loaned us! That method was only fun for awhile and ended up not working so well. Josh went to Home Depot and priced sledge hammers, but then Bob remembered a crazy 30 pound long sharp stick thing that he thought would work. Josh went to pick up that sucker from Bob's house and by the time I went to see what method he liked the best, he was a smiling crazy 30 pound long sharp stick thing wielding machine! It worked like a charm!

Even the almost seven months pregnant lady got some landscaping exercise this weekend...but Josh was the real edge designer. I would really like to get some more flowers in along the length of the garden now to spice things up. I think with or without more flowers the beds look 110% better than what we started with seven months ago! Thanks BUNCHES Shannon and David (and neighbor) for all your help!