Is it wrong?

Is it wrong to hold onto my stomach, walk around in circles and figure eights, and tilt my stomach on the curves while shouting, "Roller Coaster!!!" :)

And then make the ride a little bumpier for the fetus, by walking a little jerkily, and shouting, "Wooden Roller Coaster!!!!"

Pregger thoughts

I was feeling around my stomach, touching the strangely hardened uterine wall through my skin and belly fat.

I'm not used to having a hard, basket-ball like structure inside of me, LOL!

As I pushed in, I suddenly pulled my hand away. Oh, sh*t, I thought. What if I just poked my baby boy in the eye?!?!?!?

Still shot of the "3rd leg". :)

My husband took a still from the video that PROVES our baby is going to be a boy. :)

Still of our boy

The text was typed in by the doctor... including the little arrow, LOL!

2nd Sonogram, recorded!

When I went to the specialist for my 2nd sonogram on Thursday (to check the health of the baby, and hopefully remove the need for an amnio), I gave the specialist a DVD to record the sonogram on.

My husband you-tube'd the video:

You Tube of Sonogram

Happy viewing. :)

Drumroll Please...

Got the 2nd specialized sonogram. I.E., the 2nd one from the doctor with the really expensive equipment, vs. the ones from the ObGyn with the less expensive sonogram equipment.

I hit 20 weeks on Wednesday. On Thursday, the doctor looked around, measuring the skull and internal organs and an arm and a leg. He checked to ensure the chest (rib cage, etc.) looked good. He made sure I really wanted to know the sex... I assured him I did! That we did. That pretty much everyone in our family and all our friends did, LOL! Well, I didn't mention that, but basically it's true. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me "so, do you know the sex yet?", I'd be able to buy alot of McDonald's Happy Meals. :)

The doctor fiddled with the wand thingy across my belly, and adjusted the image. And announced, "we've found a third leg!"

I was laughing. I said something like, "Hi there, little one! You're no longer an 'It', you're a 'He'!" :)

He burned the whole session onto a DVD, and also printed out 4 images. On the last image, the, ahem, evidence, was made quite clear. :)

My Mom had 2 daughters from her first marriage. The first didn't survive past 3 days because the doctor who delivered her was unfortunately drunk at the time, and missed that some fecal matter had been aspirated. :( The second... the second is my FULL Sister, no matter that we don't share the same father. Anyone who wants to disagree with me on that is going to get his or her ass kicked. By me, my Mom, my Dad, and my Sister, LOL! My Dad adopted my Sister when my Mom and Dad got married, so it's legal even if he's not my Sister's biological Dad. He's definitely my Sister's spiritual Dad. I swear, they are so alike it's trippy.

Anyway...

My Dad had one daughter from his first marriage.

And I'm the only daughter from Mom and Dad's marriage together.

I was kindof expecting to have girls because of the trend! I knew I would be happy with either. :) People have asked us if we want a boy or a girl, and we have either said "Yes", or "one of them would be nice", LOL!

I also knew, if we had a girl, she was probably going to be influenced to be a major tomboy, LOL! Well, anyway, if I had any say in it. :)

Let's face it: growing up, I did indeed have a few dolls. And barbies. But it was mostly about the lego's and the lincoln logs. And the building blocks, and Fisher-Price little people having adventures. I wasn't big into those pretend tea parties. :P Ick. And I watched Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Bionic Man, the Incredible Hulk, Superman, etc. Thundaar the Barbarian, Land of the Lost. I was heavy into Star Trek and Star Wars. I watched all the old Japanese Godzilla movies, no matter how badly they were dubbed. And I often watched all the scary Saturday morning/afternoon movies. I guess I was the kind of girl that guys could hang out with and talk cool sci-fi stuff with.

Shoot, I LOVE the Alien and Aliens movies. Alien 3... not so much -- too depressing, and the audio track made it really hard to tell what people were saying. Alien 4 was amusing, if really way too gross at the end. Alien 5: Alien vs. Predator, was fun eye candy, but that's about it.

And yes, I also watch "chick flicks". Shoot, I own "When Harry met Sally", "The Devil Wears Prada", and various other chick flicks. It's just I also own the Star Wars movies, Raiders, Alien, and other sci-fi/adventure movies, LOL!

But don't ask me anything about cars. I understand how the combustion engine works, but you would never want to ask me to fix your vehicle!!! My tomboy-ism kindof fizzles when it comes to mechanical stuff.

However, I don't have issues pumping my own gas, topping off the oil, windshield wiper fluid, or coolant. Shoot, I pulled the battery out of my motorcycle and took it to the shop to get it recharged. [Still trying to sell that thing... I don't want to ride it while preggers, and somehow I can't see strapping a car seat on the back of it!]

And I've changed my windshield wipers. I took a class that taught how to change your car's oil, and how to rotate your tires. But crawling under my car to get the oil filter wasn't on my list of things I like to do, so although I could probably still do it, I prefer if Jiffy Lube does it. I know, I know: I'm a wimp. But although I'm petite, the idea of having a large vehicle standing over me while I'm lying flat on my back trying not to bump my head... it just doesn't appeal to me.

I know how to shoot, and I know how to fish, and how to clean what I catch. And I recently got to bait hooks with live sardines when fishing in the ocean... THAT was fun! Those things are slippery, and it's very funny to see a bunch of people, myself included, bent over chasing their bait around the boat. :)

I can scuba dive, I used to ride my poor neglected motorcycle, I used to surf, I used to ride my bike, I used to rollerblade...

My Dad took me kayak-camping, where you offload the boat and your gear on one side of the lake, pack the gear in the kayak, and paddle to the other side and pitch a tent. He also took me lake kayaking and ocean kayaking when we didn't have time to also go camping. And he taught me how to clean a fish and how to shoot.

I confess alot of my skills were learned later in life: surfing, scuba, and motorcycles came after I was 30. My husband has been a really good influence on me. :)

Heh. I've grown into a couch potato. My husband and I get home from work, and we're wiped out. We get onto the couch, get onto our laptops, and pet the dogs as they come by to get attention. We sometimes horse around with them, playing snarly-bite. :) Getting them all worked up and "snarky". :) Dogs are just awesome.

Since I've gotten pregnant, the couch-potato disease has gotten worse. We haven't walked the dogs much. I seem to have just enough energy to go to work, do some house chores, and eat and sleep. I don't even want to get into how being preggers has affected my intelligence! Let's just say I'm losing IQ points every week, and will be glad when I'm off an important project at work, so my increasing stupidity will have a lower risk of causing major problems, LOL!

Here's hoping that a little boy will get me active again, LOL! And that my intelligence returns once I'm no longer having the kid steal my oxygen from me!

Makes me think that, as the pregnancy progresses, I should break out the scuba gear and occasionally take hits from my scuba tank. I think it's still filled with Nitrox, which is basically air where they up the oxygen and reduce the nitrogen.

I can't wait until our son first learns to ride a bike, to roller-blade or roller-skate. How to surf. When he's 10 or 11, he can take scuba classes. Not sure how old (or tall?) he has to be to ride a roller-coaster! Can't wait for that, either. :)

Can't wait to play with him on the floor with legos, and lincoln logs. And army men. And toy guns, toy knives, and toy swords. And for him to dress up for Halloween. Maybe he'll decide he wants to wear my Vader mask, LOL! I already have a cool red light saber he can borrow if he's careful with it. Else he can play with the cheaper one I own. :)

Can't wait for him to meet the dogs, and the dogs to meet him. :) Boys and dogs go together. Well, so do girls and dogs, in my opinion. :)

And for all our friends to meet him. :)

And of course for my husband and I to meet him. :)

*Sigh.*

And whatever the hell I do, I will NOT make him a fracking momma's boy. Not if I can help it. He will do what I say growing up out of respect, but he WILL have a backbone and will be able to tell me "No" when he's an adult, and "No" when it's appropriate as he's growing into an adult. I will not make him into a pussy-whipped boy. [Heh, that will be his wife's job! :) ]

And he will also respect his Father, as well as his God. I will, God willing, give him what he needs to have a good relationship with me and his Father, with his God, and with the woman he may one day marry. And with his own kids, when he has them. I will do my best to give him "roots and wings". As I know my husband will, too.

Whoa. Apparently I have a very definite opinion of the type of Mom I want to be for him!!! :)

Hmph. I guess I have very definite opinions of what kind of Mom I would have been for a girl. I know I would have told her that she can do anything a boy can do, as long as she's physically capable of the job. That her "weaker sex" only has to limit her as much as she allows it... but that yeah, she's probably not going to become a professional football player! But that's ok... boys have limits too. Viva la differance. :)

That woman have a natural ability to be empathic... that it can be naturally stronger than a man's ability. But just like a woman can pump iron and make herself physically stronger, a man can also work on being a more empathic person.

That men and women often do think differently, but that the two different approaches to life, and to life's problems, can often dovetail such that a man and a woman together can solve more things than a man or a woman alone. That the differences can mean that they are stronger together.

I'd tell her that she can be an Engineer if she wants to be, or a police-woman, or whatever she puts her mind to. But I also wouldn't force her to go after a job that's traditionally a man's job unless she actually wants to do it. I.E., I'd tell her she can do anything, but not try to force her into making a statement by taking an untraditional job when she doesn't want to do that in the first place. If her goal in life is to be a stay-at-home Mom, I would support that too, is what I'm trying to say. If her goal is to be a construction worker, after my initial fear of her falling from a great height while working, I'd take her out to go shopping for a construction hat and boots!!! :)

And yeah, if our son wants to be a male nurse, or a male steward on a plane, I would support that as well. Huh... although I confess I might be a little weirded out by it. Hmph... got to work on my attitude. If women can break stereotypes, men can too.

Guess I'm used to the idea of women breaking the stereotypes, but not men. Wow... I found my double-standard, LOL!!!

If our son chooses or feels driven to be gay, I will still love him. I hope that isn't a road he goes down, though: it's a very difficult road for a man or a woman to take, maybe more so for a man.

Anyway... :)

I have a DVD and I have some pictures from Thursday's doctor's visit, but need to scan the pics in, and need to get the DVD into a format that can be uploaded to youtube. :) Links to follow.

Sorry for he really long diatribe. Can I blame my rambling on being pregnant? :)

Dogs are weird...

So, why do our dogs both come running into the bedroom, and go lie down in their crates when my husband and I are in there making love?

Is it a pack thing?

Are they happy to see their Alpha male and Alpha female mating, therefore increasing the solidarity of the pack?

Does that mean that they feel even more secure knowing I'm pregnant, i.e., about to have "puppies", and therefore continue the existence of "the pack"?

Can they sense that I'm pregnant?

Hmmmm...

And why do they both go into their crates when one of us goes into the bathroom to take a shower? I admit it's kind of comforting to know they are out there in the bedroom, waiting for me or my husband. Like they are keeping some sort of vigil while we bathe. Perhaps they doubt our sanity, as we are doing an activity so unnatural to them, and so they want to keep watch, make sure they can "rescue" us from the evil shower if something bad happens.

Sort of explains why our male German Shepherd will stick his nose between the shower wall and the shower curtain, as if to say, "Are you REALLY sure you want to be in here doing this? I mean, when you force me to get in here for a bath, you KNOW it's like torture. So, why are you torturing yourself?? Are you feeling well?"

Why do they visit us when we're sitting on the pot in the bathroom? Do they find it disturbing that we pee and poo inside the house, and therefore need to check on us? Is it mostly that they are eager to sniff our butts while we're doing our thing, since they do that to each other when each other is peeing? It would explain why they do sometimes try to sniff our butts while we are sitting there. They do seem a little frustrated that the part of our butt they really want to get to is kept safe by the toilet seat...

Why do they insist on sniffing every corner of the back yard at night, when I'm just trying to get them to pee and poo so we can all go to bed? And then act like they aren't really interested in peeing or pooing, and wander back inside. And then, when we're all settled in the bedroom for the night, stare at us and then at the bedroom door, like they really still need to pee and poo?

And what's with the floor show every night at around 9pm? Like clockwork, they start running back and forth through the house, one chasing the other. When they change direction, they change which dog is chasing which.

People say that watching fish in a fish tank can be very soothing. But they are missing the sheer silliness of 2 huge German Shepherds running back and forth, the entire length of the house, about 10 times until they wear themselves out, stop in the living room, panting, looking at us, as if to say "why aren't you joining us?" We just sit there on the couch, looking at each other and giggling.

Why does our male dog eat poo? And then come into the living room, sit in front of us and pant in our face? Is he trying to share the incredible flavor he experiences?

We feed them both enough dog food. We've tried feeding our male German Shepherd extra dog food, thinking maybe he was extra hungry and was thus eating dog poo to try to increase his diet. We often give them some cooked meat we have leftover from dinner. And in spite of this, our male German Shepherd still has to eat poo! What is it that makes poo taste so good to him???

Why are our dogs so weird?

Ironic

My husband and I have decided to go chill out in the patio of a local ritzy hotel. We're kicking back, sitting in front of the fire, both of us typing/surfing away on our laptops.

Three people walk by, and one of them starts going off on us!

She can't believe we are sitting here, outside, enjoying the night air and a fire and a few drinks (mine non-alcoholic, of course), and we are sitting across from each other on our individual laptops! She starts giving us a speech on how we should be sitting next to each other, laptops closed, enjoying the time outside with each other.

I said that this is what we do in our living room, with our German Shepherds hanging out with us.

She said, "Exactly! This is NOT your living room! Oh, no wonder so many young people get divorced these days!"

My husband pipes up with "Damned kids and their rock music."

She doesn't quite get the implied joke and says that it's not the music that's the issue. I start giggling and say, "No, it was a joke."

She walks away disgusted, saying something about how we're missing our chance, how we should be stopping to smell the roses.

When she's mostly out of earshot we start giggling and blogging about the incident. ;)

Humor to beat the heat

As you sit there, sweat dripping, hoping and praying for a cool breeze during the heat wave, take a moment to enjoy a laugh:

The Five Levels of Drinking, an oldy, but a goody.

User Friendly, one of my favorite online comics.

Stress I forgot, and more recent Stress.

Forgot a couple of things with my last post, plus a few new things happened.

So, a few weeks ago, it felt like my bright red car must be fracking invisible or something.

I had an elderly couple in the clinic's parking lot try to back up into my car. I honked, and got out of the way.

In the grocery store parking lot, someone else tried to back up into me. Another honk and move out of the way scenario. WTF? Is it open season on pregnant women and their cars or something?

Then, the big one. Some dude driving a truck with wooden slats up the sides of the cargo area did a left onto the street I drive on, when going to and from work. He didn't see me, and was basically going to attempt something I knew from my Physics classes would be impossible: to occupy the same location of space as I was!

I pulled to the right, trying to find a space between the parked cars, honking madly, and hoped no bicycles were on my right at that exact moment.

The guy pulled over to the left, double-parking, pointed the wrong way, and stayed put. Thankfully, no one was coming from either direction. It was then I realized he was shook up. And I immediately felt better about the situation, 'cause he obviously wasn't trying to be a dick: he was upset that he'd almost hit me, probably more shook up that I was at that moment.

I pulled alongside him. He looked apologetic and upset. I smiled and mouthed that it was ok. I drove to the stoplight, into the left-turn lane. He drove up into the right turn lane. We repeated the exchange, and then I mimed my reaction when he had spooked me. Then grinned. He and I both laughed, he turned right, I turned left.

It sounds really stupid, but that 3rd near-miss made me feel really good. It was like a confirmation of the general goodness of most of mankind, you know? This guy CARED about what almost happened, cared that he almost hurt me. It made me CARE about his feelings, made me want him to know that I knew he didn't mean it. That I was ok, that I had no hard feelings over what was obviously a mistake. No harm, no foul.

Really stupid, but I was glad it happened. No-one was hurt, and it felt really good to have such a positive interaction with a complete stranger.

Ok, so that was the good stressor, LOL. ;)

The other thing that happened was yet another stressor at work. I can't elaborate, so I'll just say that I felt caught between two people and something person A did that person B wouldn't have liked. I ended up letting it go. :P I felt like I should have called person B, but person A did email person B about what he was going to do. It's just that person B wasn't at work that day. But I mostly learned about what was going on after person A had already done it.

I was caught between feeling bad person B hadn't been truly forewarned ahead of time, that he was going to read about it when he got back to work the next day. And also caught between feeling that, if I did call him, I'd be ratting out person A. It's not my job to police my co-workers, you know? And person B sometimes shoots the messenger... not intentionally, but I didn't really feel emotionally up to hearing him vent all over me because of what person A was doing. Of course, I then worried about if person B found out I knew and didn't call him... ick. I guess I was doomed to being stressed out either way.

I need to quit letting myself get so worked up over things at work. It's not healthy for me right now. Well, it's never healthy, but now I have a baby to think about.

The final thing that happened recently was something I really need to keep from getting caught up in.

My Mom and my Sister are REALLY good about worrying about each other. If my Sister doesn't answer the phone at night, my Mom worries that she's outside, in the snow, stuck under something heavy, and slowing freezing to death. My Sister has horses and dogs, and feeds the horses in the evenings. Dogs too, but they are inside at night.

Well, if my Sister doesn't hear from our parents over the phone for a while, she worries that something bad happened to them.

And that's what happened. My Sister talked to my Mom on a Thursday. Mom said that Dad hadn't gotten up at his normal time in the morning... he'd slept in unusually late. His schedule at work has been a little weird. I think my Mom was talking to my Sister Thursday night when she said that. Then she said that she was going to go check on Dad, and hung up. My Sister tried to call her back Thursday night I think, but Mom didn't answer.

Friday morning, my Sister tried calling Mom again. No answer. So, around noon, my Sister calls me.

My Sister lives out of state. I live in the same city as our parents.

She tells me what she knows. Asks me to check on our parents. And tells me not to drive too fast!

Our Dad is in his 80's, Mom in her late 70's. Yeah, I know: my Dad is in his 80's, and he's still working?? Well, they need the money. :P

I get off the phone. I'm now thinking that maybe Dad died in his sleep Thursday night, and Mom had a heart attack when she found him. After all, Mom has congestive heart failure. She's got a pacemaker to keep her heart beating enough, and meds to keep her heart from beating too much. Dad's in really good shape for an 80+ year old, but still...

Or, one or both of them needed to go to the hospital, and they haven't called me, because they are afraid I will have a miscarriage from the shock.

Yes, I went along for the worry-trip. Like an idiot.

I had taken a shower. I was on my way, really late, into work. I stopped to brush my teeth, and grab a few things I might need with me in case I wasn't going to be coming home for a while. I figured I could spare 10 extra minutes: if one or both had died last night, my getting there 10 minutes early wasn't exactly going to give me a chance to perform CPR. :P And if this was a false alarm, well, I'd have clean teeth for work, LOL!

Do I sound like I was pretty calm about it? Well, I was upset, but not as upset as I might have been 10 years ago. When your parents are up there in age, you begin to accept that eventually, you're going to get THAT phone call. You don't like it, but you can't keep worrying about it all the time. It's better to live and enjoy the present then dread the future, you know?

I rubbed my stomach and told the baby that he/she might not get to meet her grandparents on her mother's side. Sigh.

I put the doggies and their water outside, gave them both loving pets, and drove in the direction of my parents and work. Both are in the same direction.

Now that I was on the road, I called my Mom on my cell. Mom answered!

"You ok?"

"Yeah..."

"Is Dad ok?"

"Yeah..."

"Uhm, you might want to call Sister..."

I don't know if my Sister tried to call Mom and Dad back Thursday night or not. I do know that Mom and Dad had a little argument, and that Mom slept even poorer than normal because of it. [She has insomnia.] So Friday morning Mom didn't hear the phone ringing in the family room. And the portable phone, which was near her bed, isn't doing so well. And Dad, if he's on a normal work schedule, leaves really early, and so never heard any phones.

So Mom slept through my Sister's attempts to wake her. But my Sister also called my Dad's cell phone. No answer. I figure that Dad must have left his cell in the car again!

Anyway, for the 2nd or 3rd time, I went on my Sister's worry-trip. Bleah. I keep doing this, and doing this... going on my Sister's worry-trips, or my Mom's worry-trips. The only trips I haven't gone on have been my Dad's worry-trips. He rarely has them, but he did have a doozy about 2 or 3 years ago. I didn't go on that one, thankfully.

I drove to work, sat down to write code, and tried to relax and lower my blood pressure. I had an ObGyn appointment later that day... I was afraid what my blood pressure was going to look like when I got there. :P

My husband's theory of life leans more to the "no news is good news" idea. I.E., if he hasn't heard from his folks in a while, he doesn't necessarily assume the worst.

I'm trying to lean towards his way of thinking. So that, next time this happens, I just assume that my Mom didn't hear the phone. Or that the cell phones aren't charged. Or that they are too busy to answer the phone. Ditto for my Sister, if she hasn't called back in the last 12 hours. I figure the limit is 24 hours, then you can get concerned.

Admittedly, my Sister never said the words that they could be dead or in the hospital. The worry was apparent in her voice, but she didn't necessarily assume the worst. Then again, asking me to drive over there does kindof assume the worst. I.E., other people might have waited until Friday evening before they worried because someone wasn't answering the phone or calling them back. Maybe.

I don't know.

Just tired of it.