Muffins & Midday Naps

After a very restless night due to high winds and my own anxieties, I was pretty tired when I woke up at 7:30am. Since Zumba wasn't until 9:15am I just laid in bed for a bit listening to the wind still whipping outside. Although it had died down quite a bit from last night, it was still pretty windy outside. JoJo figured out I was awake so she jumped into bed to snuggle with me a bit. I knew the wind kept her up last night too for every time I went to the bathroom she was laying there wide awake. I finally rolled out of bed and got ready to go Zumba. Karson announced again this morning that this class would be the only one she would be still teaching at the Y after next week. One of the girls from our class, Wendy, who also subs for Karson is moving to Houston this weekend so today was her last Zumba class at the Y. Trista, who befriended me some time ago when she discovered we both shared the experience of stillbirth, had made muffins so we could all celebrate Wendy. Unfortunately, Wendy had to leave class early today so Karson stopped the music and so everyone could say good bye and send her well wishes. After class we had a little party with Trista's muffins without Wendy. Karson and Trista asked me all about how the baby was doing and if we had a name yet. Trista knew I was coming up on the time in my pregnancy where we lost Nolan so she told me if I needed anything or just wanted someone to talk with to just give her a call. Trista lost her first baby, a daughter at full term - 40 weeks. She too never found out why. That was a couple of years ago and she has yet to try to have another baby. From my chats with her I'm not sure that she ever will. She dealt with her daughter's death a lot differently than I dealt with Nolan's and Tifni dealt with Brody's. She sort of became an introvert and never wanted to talk about her daughter to people, especially to people who had not experienced the same loss. She told me that she didn't try to lose weight after the pregnancy and in fact just gained more weight for the next year. It wasn't until a year later when she started going to Zumba that she started trying to shed the weight of her pregnancy.

When I got home I watched some TV, did some baby kick counts, heated up some Indochine leftovers for lunch and then ended up falling asleep. I only woke up when Marshall called during his lunch hour to say hello. I even went back to sleep after I hung up with him. When I finally woke up at 4pm, I realized I was still in my exercise clothes so I went and took a shower and put my PJs on. I had no plans to go anywhere else today and besides it was windy and cold outside. Why would I go out there if I didn't have to? I realized that tomorrow I am 33 weeks pregnant. I found out I had lost Nolan when I was 33 weeks and 6 days and I had him 24 hours later. This week is going to be a very stressful and anxiety ridden one. I feel like if I can get through this week I just might sleep a little easier at night. Not that something can't go wrong after this but getting through this milestone in my pregnancy I feel is a huge one.

New Roof & Tornado Watch

The roofers showed up around 7:30am this morning to begin work on the new roof. According to Doug, they should be finished today. Great! JoJo did not like all those men in our yard though and could not stop barking at them. I closed the front door hoping she wouldn't be able to see them, but she could still hear them. It wasn't until they had been up on the roof for awhile that she finally settled down and got used to the noise. Every now and then she would let out a little reminder bark, but that was it. I decided to just hang around the house today while they were there, hoping they would be done so I could go to Zumba at 4:30pm. Around 3pm Doug knocked on the door and told me they were done with the roof and were just cleaning up. JoJo and I walked outside to take a look at the roof and it looked really good. The color is so much better than what we had before.

I then went inside and got my exercise clothes on. By the time I was ready to leave for Zumba the roofers were all cleaned up and gone. Right before I left, I received our due diligence check in the mail from our potential buyers. One step closer to closing on this house! Next week they will be doing the inspection and appraisal on the house so we are crossing our fingers that it all goes well so we can breathe a sigh of relief on this house. I deposited the check on my way to Zumba. Karson announced during Zumba today that after next week she would no longer be teaching the Monday/Wednesday 4:30pm class at the Y and would only be teaching the 9:15am class on Thursdays. I was kinda bummed to hear that even though I know I can still go to her classes at Babs. It just means I will probably be going to Babs more now then the Y. I will check out the Y classes and see who ends up taking over her classes but they are going to have to be pretty great in order for them to fill Karson's shoes. Apparently, after next week we will be having subs for a few classes and we as a class will be able to vote on them to have input in who they actually hire. There was a little girl today in my class that was right behind me that was about 7 or 8 and boy was she going to town. She knew all the moves and was keeping up with the class. I was very impressed. She did better than a lot of the women in the class and I've never seen this little girl before in any of my classes at the Y. She danced the entire hour and was loving it. Every time I caught a glimpse of her it made me smile.

The girls were all coming over tonight for dinner and American Idol so I had to swing by the grocery store on the way home to pick up the ingredients I needed. When Mom showed up I was just finishing putting the casserole together. She changed into comfy clothes as I put the tater tot casserole in the oven and went to shower. Susan and Stacey showed up right as I was finishing up my shower. Stacey had gone shopping and found a cute little fuzzy outfit for the baby. She said she saw it and knew that i would still be cold when he was born so we were gonna need something warm to bundle him in when we brought him home. It's navy blue and so soft and very cute. She also picked up a long sleeved onesie with a guitar on it. While we waited on dinner to finish cooking we ended up watching Cheer Perfection and Honey Boo Boo. It was Susan and Stacey's first time seeing either of the shoes and Stacey got hooked on Honey Boo Boo. So much so that we were done eating and ready to watch American Idol but had to wait 6 minutes until Honey Boo Boo was over so Stacey could finish watching it. It really is like a train wreck that you just can't stop looking at. It is amazing to see people that actually live that way and act like that. It's no wonder that the first time I stumbled upon the show in a hotel room I had no idea it was real! Mom had to leave halfway through Idol as the wind was really picking up outside and she needed to stop at the grocery store on the way home. By the time Susan and Stacey left the wind was really howling outside and had already knocked over one of my plants outside breaking the pot. I think we are really in for some high winds tonight as we are under a tornado watch until 2am. Hopefully, my roof will hold up under all this wind! I already have trouble sleeping at night, this wind is definitely not going to help.

Stacey's Birthday

This morning we had our 32 1/2 week ultrasound. Since it has been a month since they did the last growth measurement on the baby, today was the day we got to see how big he was now. He's grown quite a bit since last month. He now weighs 4lbs 11oz! He hit a pretty big growth spurt as he is now in the 50th percentile. For the first time ever the ultrasound tech said he had long legs. They used to tell me that all the time when I was pregnant with Nolan, but until today they have never said any such thing about this little boy. His heartbeat today was 135 and the fluid and everything looked good. He was moving around a bunch, but refused to show us his face. He kept it buried the whole time with his hands over it. We did see that he has a whole head full of hair now though since he gave us a very clear view of the back of his head. His brain was measuring good and the doctors actually seemed happy with his little growth spurt. From here on out he should start putting on some weight so there's no telling how big he will actually be when he comes out in just over 4 weeks.

After my appointment I went to Target to get a birthday gift for my friend Stacey and figured I would actually register for what few baby items we still needed. I had been asked several times if I had registered anywhere as people are still wanting to get gifts for the baby after he makes his debut so I decided I might as well register for what we need instead of just getting a whole bunch more clothes. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to register for and most of what we still need are big ticket items like a pack and play and highchair, but I did find a few smaller things to actually put on the list. By the time I was done there I was starving, so I headed over to Blue Water to meet Stacey for lunch. It was such a beautiful January day in Wilmington that we decided to eat outside by the water. Lunch was great and the 70 degree weather was spectacular.


When we finished I went home and ended up taking a two hour nap. I don't know why but I have found myself getting very sleepy come mid afternoon. Of course, I'm still not getting much sleep at night so I guess that might have something to do with it, but if given the opportunity I will almost always take an afternoon nap nowadays. When I woke up it was still light outside so I took JoJo for a walk around the neighborhood before I had to leave to meet up with everyone for Stacey's birthday dinner at Indochine. It had been some time since I had been to Indochine as Marshall isn't a big fan, but I love it. I had my favorite chicken yellow curry and it was as good as I remembered. Susan, Misha, Mike and Keith were all there along with Stacey's godson Stephen, his mom, his aunt and his friend Harry. Stacey seemed to enjoy the celebration and the food and even put in her request for American Idol dinner tomorrow night - Tatertot casserole. I guess I know what I'm making now! Tomorrow morning the roofers start work on our new roof so I better try to go to sleep early tonight if I want to get any sleep before they come first thing in the morning.

Plumber

The plumber came first thing this morning to install the vanity, sink and toilet. We had thought we could get him to install the new shower head too but apparently we bought the wrong valve so I will have to go back and get a different one and have it installed. The bathroom looks great and at least everything works again. I can't wait to pee in my own bathroom tonight instead of having to trek down the hall 6 times during the middle of the night. Now all I need is a mirror and light and I can fully use my bathroom again!





After the plumber left I went to the post office to drop off some checks we needed mailed to our real estate agent in Charlotte. There's some work that needs to be done under the house so we can get it to pass inspection and keep the ball rolling on this sale. I picked up lunch at Chick-fil-A on the way home. I did a bunch of writing this afternoon and then decided to lay down for a bit before going to Zumba. Well, I never actually made it to Zumba. I woke up at 5pm and Zumba was already halfway over. Whoops! Oh well, the nap felt amazing and I was so tired so I didn't feel guilty at all.

Sleepy Sunday

This morning we went to Lowe's so I could show Marshall some ideas for mirrors and lights. Although he liked some of them he didn't love them so we didn't end up getting either but instead picked up a few things we needed to finish up the bathroom. We stopped at La Costa in Porter's Neck on the way home to grab some lunch. When we got home I laid down on the couch while Marshall watched Ancient Aliens and I quickly fell asleep. When I woke up Marshall informed me that he too fell asleep while sitting up in the recliner! He slept almost as long as I did. Shortly after our naps, Marshall packed up and left to head back to Charleston.

I spent the rest of the afternoon knitting and watching movies. I finally finished knitting the baby cocoon. Not bad for my first try. Next I have to make a hat that goes with it. JoJo kept me company as she dragged her blanket off her bed and onto the floor so she could nap on it. She has started moving the blanket around the house lately. Sometimes it is on her bed and she will bunch it up and lay on it. Other times she drags it off and onto the floor so she can lay on it there. It's rather cute. She reminds me of a little kid with their blankie.

Business Proposal

Today my Dad was cooking in a BBQ cookoff to support Wounded Warriors down at Carolina Beach, so Marshall and I went down there to eat some BBQ and support him. Susan, Stacey, Brian and their friends ended up coming down too and meeting us as did my cousin Jay and Uncle Norwood. There was a huge turnout down there and the BBQ was pretty good. My Dad's team and one other team that we tried had the best by far. While we were there we ran into Dawn and Eric who started talking to us about a business proposal they had for us. Apparently, Eric has been wanting to shoot a horror film for some time and has $50,000 to do so with. So, he has a concept and wants me to write the script and direct them film! It's a good concept, we just need to work through the logistics of the plot and killings. Dawn had their miniature husky Zodi with them and every two seconds it seemed like someone was coming up to her wanting to pet the husky. At one point, Dawn just handed me her beer so she could hold the husky to let these people pet her. Marshall found the juxtaposition of me holding a beer while 8 months pregnant rather comedic so he had to take a picture. What is sad is there are actually a lot of women out there who find nothing wrong with continuing to drink while pregnant and of course they have perfectly healthy babies. I, on the other hand, do everything by the book and my son is stillborn. Hopefully, my dedication to following all the dos and don'ts will pay off this time with a healthy baby boy. Since Dawn could hardly carry on a conversation with us due to being interrupted every five seconds, we decided to walk over to Hang Ten Grill and have a late lunch with them in order to better discuss some ideas about the film. We did manage to come up with some pretty good ideas. Now I just need to do some research as we are basing the film on some true events, or rather a real person/ghost. I'm one of those writers who does the research and fleshes out the characters before I ever sit down and try to write the story. I guess that's why people always comment on how great my characters are and how real the dialogue is. I find that if you know the characters really well then you know how they would react and speak in a given situation so you don't have to guess the entire time you are writing. I'm not sure how much of this I will actually get done before the baby comes, but it's definitely something to start working on and I'm really excited about the prospect.

When we finally got home, Marshall and I both just lounged around the house and I napped for a little bit. Then it was time for me to go meet Susan for the Zumba Glow in the Dark party! The party was from 8-10pm, but we both were only going to stay for the first hour of it. When we got there they had the room all decorated with black lights and balloons and glow sticks. Susan brought us some glow sticks to wear and we put on our Zumba jingle bracelets and got ready to Zumba down. For those drinkers there they also had a cash bar of wine and beer just to make the Zumba experience a little more interesting. It was so much fun! There were a lot of girls dressed up in crazy outfits, taking the Glow in the Dark aspect to a whole new level. I picked up some Thai food on the way home for dinner and then showered while Marshall put it out on plates for us. After dinner we turned on Argo, a screener I borrowed from Tina, and started watching it. I barely made it through 30 minutes of the movie before zonking out on the couch. Marshall too fell asleep. What I saw of the film was good so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it. I have two more screeners to watch as well - Les Mis and Silver Lining Playbook. It's one of the perks of working in the film business and having friends in certain unions that actually receive screeners. These screeners were actually SAG nominees which is why Tina had them.

Friendly Friday

I had my weekly doctor appointment with Dr. McLean this morning. Baby's heartbeat was 140. Baby passed his BPP again, but it took awhile to get him to do his practice breathing. He was sleeping and being lazy. It took me rolling over onto my side to get him to wake up and really start moving around and practice breathing. Dr. McLean told me she was working on getting the amnio scheduled, but still had no definite date or time yet. As always, she asked about how I was doing mentally and how Marshall was. She then asked if we had had any baby showers or anything. I told her my friends had asked about doing one for us but we declined it and agreed to a party after he was born instead. Dr. McLean thought that was a great idea and told me that apparently in Europe that is how they do it. They always have showers after the baby is born. Hmmm. It's not a terrible idea as long as you have the necessities you need to bring the baby home with.

After my apt I went home and Stacey and Brian came over. Brian put in the base board in shoe molding in the entire bathroom while Stacey helped me finish putting the vanity together. I had only asked Brian to put down the baseboard behind where the vanity and toilet would go, but he decided to just do the entire bathroom. What great friends are they?!

They then moved the vanity and sink into the bathroom for me before they left. I loaded up all the boxed and took them to the recycling center and then came back and started painting the trim in the bedroom and touching up the trim in the bathroom. I also painted the bathroom door that was previously green to black to match all the other doors in our house. Marshall got home around 11:30pm and I showed him what had been done to the bathroom and he was so surprised! He said it looked great and he couldn't believe I did the tiling all by myself and Stacey didn't help me. It made me feel good that Marshall actually liked the job I did as he is such a perfectionist when it comes to construction. Marshall helped me hang the bathroom door back up and then he put together the bassinet that he had bought. We moved it into the bedroom to make sure it was going to fit beside the bed.

Babysitting

Tina's call time got pushed late last night an hour later so instead of being at her house at 7:30am, I didn't have to be there until 8:30am. Of course I didn't find that out until I woke up at 6am to get ready and saw an email from Tina. So I emailed her back that I got the message and tried to go back to sleep for an hour. Jamie was already at work by the time I got to Tina's and Harper was wide awake and happy as always. Tina left and Harper and I played until she got sleepy. She went down for her nap earlier than normal as Tina said she woke up early today. By 9:20am she was sound asleep without much coercion from me. I took the monitor and went back downstairs and watched some TV while she napped for over an hour. When she finally woke up, I changed her diaper and made her a bottle and we played until her Daddy came home for lunch. Jamie gets 3 hours off in the middle of the day so I was able to go home for a couple of hours during lunch.

While home, I let JoJo out and made lunch and even started to grout the bathroom a little. I wanted to at least grout the tiles that would be under the toilet and vanity in case the plumber was able to come out tomorrow. While Harper was napping, I called a plumber but they were a man down so the chances that they could come out tomorrow were pretty slim. Although I really wanted the bathroom done by the time Marshall came home, it was actually probably a good thing I would have a little more time to get it all finished before the plumber comes. I headed back over to Tina's around 2:30pm and Harper was just getting up from another nap when I arrived. She didn't need to be fed again until 4:30-5, so we just played on the tummy time matt and read a book and hung out.

This was my first time keeping a baby since Nolan had passed away and I thought it might be strange, but it really wasn't. I've kept so many babies in my lifetime that it really didn't seem any different. Of course, I know it will be when the baby is actually mine and it probably helped that Harper is such a good baby. Marshall and I watched Dylan before but he was older than Harper when we watched him and it was only for a couple of hours. Tina didn't get home until a little after 4pm. We chatted about how her first day back at work went and she thanked me for the pictures I sent her of Harper throughout the day. She also told me it helped her be at ease at work knowing I was keeping Harper and she didn't have to worry. That was nice to hear. I told her that hopefully we would be able to trade off watching each other's kids more in the near future. I was glad to be able to help them out.

It also worked out perfectly that Tina got home when she did as I was supposed to go to a pediatrician meet and greet at 5:30pm. If Tina had been still working, Dino was going to come over and watch Harper for a couple of hours until Jamie got home. I had just enough time to swing back by the house to let JoJo out before heading across town to Seaside Pediatrics. They were the only pediatricians I didn't meet when I was pregnant with Nolan as I was due to meet them the week I lost Nolan.

My Mom met me there so I could get her opinion of the place and see if she had any questions for them that I forgot to ask. There were quite a few people there and apparently a lot of people having boys as there were lots of questions about circumcision being asked. Marshall and I have been contemplating circumcision a lot this go round and still haven't completely made up our mind. I really liked the office and thought the pediatricians seemed really nice. It's a small practice with only 3 doctors and 1 nurse practitioner. I much prefer that type of office as opposed to a large place where you never really know the doctors. After the meet and greet, Mom and I went to La Costa to grab some dinner and talk about the visit. She too really like the doctors and thought they would be a good choice of pediatricians. There's also another group in town that I liked and I think either one would be a great choice.

After dinner I headed back home to try to finish grouting the bathroom. I knew I could do it tomorrow, but Stacey and Brian said they would come over tomorrow and help me do the baseboard so I really wanted to finish the grouting tonight so it could set up overnight. It took me several hours and I would have much rather been sleeping, but I did finally get it all finished. It looks pretty great if I do say so myself. Especially since it was my first time tiling all by myself. Even though I was exhausted, I decided I should start trying to put together the vanity. So I pulled it out and JoJo and I started putting it together. I got the main cabinet and doors put together and then called it a night. I figured I could put the side shelf units together tomorrow as they shouldn't take that long.

Tile

This morning I had coffee with Dino, Tina and Harper at Barnes and Nobles. While we were there another stuntman stopped by - John Gilbert. John and his wife, Bridgette, are expecting their first baby - a boy - in just under a week. While we were all there hanging out, Tina got a call from the stunt coordinator on the TV show Revolution asking her to work tomorrow. Saturday was supposed to be Tina's first day back to work but now it appears tomorrow will be. She asked if I was busy tomorrow if her sister-in-law Stacey wasn't able to babysit and I told her I could if she needed me to. Of course, it turned out later in the day that it was going to be necessary for me to watch Harper for her. I was happy to do it even though it put a kink in my plans for working on the bathroom.

I only stayed for coffee for about an hour and then headed to Lowe's to try to find some more bathroom tile. We had some tile left over from when we remodeled our guest bathroom but not enough to do our entire master bath. Fortunately, I found the exact tile at Lowe's and they were selling it by the tile so I didn't have to buy an entire box that I didn't need. It took me the entire rest of the day, but I did manage to get the bathroom completely tiled. I had to take several breaks as leaning over and being on my knees or squatting down got to me after awhile. I finished just in time to shower and put my pajamas on and head over to Susan's for dinner and American Idol. On the way to her house, I stopped at Home Depot to pick up some baseboard and shoe molding. Dinner was great. Susan made pineapple chicken burgers, squash and corn on the grill and whole wheat cookies with cranberries and chocolate chips. I didn't stay for all of American Idol as I was just too exhausted and I have to be at Tina's at 7:30am to watch Harper. I knew if I didn't leave early I would be just too tired to drive back home. I'm hoping that tomorrow I will be able to grout the tile, but I'm not sure how much time I will have at home.

When I got home there was a package on our front porch from Amazon. When I opened it there was a gift wrapped box and a stuffed animal with a note. It was from the "Towle Clan" our friends Melissa, Jessica, Geoff and his fiancee Amanda. They had sent us a gift for the baby. We got a sheep sound machine stuffed animal and a Bjorn. Marshall is going to be excited about the Bjorn as that is the one thing he keeps talking about wanting because he has big plans to carry the baby around on his chest everywhere he goes.

Painting

I had another ultrasound appointment today at Wilmington MFM. Mom went with me and it was her first time getting to see this baby. She had previously gone with me when I was pregnant with Nolan, but the last time she was supposed to go with me with this baby she woke up sick so had to cancel. I'm 31 weeks and 4 days now. The baby passed his BPP test again with flying colors. We were able to spend a bit longer watching him today as we had a student from Cape Fear performing the ultrasound at first. After she had a go at it for awhile, the regular ultrasound tech came in and took over and went back over everything the student had done. He still likes to cover his face with his hand so we only got a glimpse of his nose and lips. He was moving around a bunch though and opening and closing his hands and of course doing some good practice breathing. Hopefully, that's a good sign for a positive lung amnio in 5 1/2 weeks!

After my appointment, I spent the remainder of the day sanding the holes I had filled in yesterday and painting. It took several coats of the seafoam fog paint in order to properly cover the previous purple color. Even though I was painting with the no VOC paint, I still opened the bathroom window and wore a mask, just to be on the safe side. By the time I was finished painting it was nearly dark and I was pretty exhausted, but I did manage to get my second wind and go to Zumba. By the time Zumba was over, I was feeling the soreness of the day set in so I showered, put my pajamas on and spent the rest of the night lounging on the couch and knitting. I'm determined to have this bathroom done by the time Marshall gets home this weekend, but it is taking me a bit longer than it normally would. I find I have to take more breaks than I usually would as squatting or bending over for long periods of time really does a toll on my lower back.

Demolition Day

I got up and went to Zumba this morning for the first time in days. I really felt the effects of the cold while trying to workout. I had to keep going to the bathroom to blow my nose and cough up some phlegm. At least it is all trying to come out of me now. That's a good sign that maybe I'm finally getting better. It still felt good to workout though after not feeling like doing it for several days.

Then Dad came over and helped me start work on the bathroom remodel I wanted to do to surprise Marshall. For a year now we have had a new vanity and sink sitting in our shed that we purchased at IKEA with the intent on redoing our master bathroom, but it got put on the back burner with all the work we had to do on our house in Charlotte. So, I finally decided I had had enough of the crappy vanity we had in our bathroom and I was going to do the bathroom remodel myself while Marshall was in Charleston. By the time Dad got to my house, I had already taken all the stuff out of the bathroom. I had also taken down the shelves, all the lighting covers, and the mirror. Dad then took the sink, vanity and toilet out. Once everything was out we went to Panera and had some lunch. I was finally starting to have a little bit of an appetite so figured a bowl of soup and a baguette would do me some good.

After lunch we went to Lowe's where I got a new toilet, some paint, speckling, thinset and grout to complete my bathroom remodel. It helped that since my Dad was with me I was able to get his military discount at Lowe's. I had no idea they gave such discounts! When we got home, Dad unloaded the toilet into my house and put the old toilet, vanity, sink, mirror and light into his truck to take to Habitat for Humanity. We then took out all the baseboard and the old flooring and I scraped off the wallpaper that was hiding behind the toilet and vanity. The demolition process was then complete! After Dad left I filed in all the holes in the wall to prepare the walls for painting.  Tomorrow begins the painting process!