Updates in the Life

First, I give you belly pics, because I know you all are just panting to see them:



And now, what's really exciting:


This is our house! Ok, technically the bank owns it... but don't banks technically own most people's houses? This one's ours; we got the keys on Friday, and we've been taking several trips a day since, moving smaller pieces. This is why I'm late posting belly pics this time. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

It's not a big house - barely bigger than our apartment - and the brown isn't all that great, and the astroturf on the front porch has GOT to go asap... but it's ours! It was built in 1915, and for all its age and oddities, it's really lovely inside, with tons of cabinets in the kitchen and gorgeous moldings around every conceivable doorway and other opening, and a wood stove, and quite a nicely large back yard. It needs some love (read: elbow grease) here and there, but truly, it was an amazing house to find in our price range and time frame, not to mention the very nice neighborhood it's in! We're very happy to be moving in and having it be OURS!!! Apartment living is the pits.

We plan to be living in the house by this weekend (especially if we can get the gas line put in by then... for the stove :) ), so my next set of belly pics will be in a different bathroom!

Yes, there has been knitting. Just not much, because even though I can't do any lifting in this move, there still isn't very much time for knitting right now.

Cherry-Poppin' Momma!

I got to go to my first birth last night! It was a very fast, intense labor - I left home at about 5 in the afternoon and was home at about 2:30 am, with 4 hours of active labor between the mom's water breaking and the delivery of her bouncing baby boy. If I wasn't hooked on birth before, I am now!

There were times I felt a bit at a loss for how to help, but I'm sure experience will help fill in those gaps. And boy do I want more! (Experience, that is.) I did feel, however, like all my training for the moment did, in fact, adequately prepare me, which I'd been anxious about beforehand. But actually, it was easy for me - just follow my instincts, as honed by my training and reading and discussions with other doulas. And honestly, I think the mom's labor was so fast and intense that maybe even a much more experienced doula might have been a bit at a loss at points (I hope my mom doesn't have an issue with that comment if/when she reads this!). All in all, though, I think it was a very positive experience all around, which makes me happy. :)

Feeling a bit blue

This has been a pretty hard week for me, emotionally. I ran out of brain meds last weekend, and of course the pharmacy was closed on Saturday, so I couldn't get my new supply until Monday. Well, Monday night my WoW guild ran smack into a humongous pile of drama, and I lost it. I think I would have been ok without all this; just sailed on until the meds kicked in again, no muss, no fuss. But the drama, which would probably have made me upset anyway, took my unbalanced brain chemistry and threw me off the Grand Canyon. I'm still trying to pick myself up.

And then today I hear that one of my oldest friends had her baby last night. Now, this friend (more like an acquaintance these days, but friend is shorter to say, and we did used to be quite close) is notorious for avoiding all possible discussion of emotional topics. I was hurt, but not very surprised, when she barely acknowledged to the email list we're both on (all my contact with her these days) that she was pregnant at all, and of course didn't mention a due date or anything like it. I had to get a few bare scrapes of info by making my brother (who saw her about three weeks ago) screw it out of her; all he could say was that she was due this month. And then he told me this noon that she popped last night; turns out he found out from another friend, who had just the most basic birth announcement information. Well, I can see not having the brainspace to make announcements yet, but to send it to some friends and not others makes me grumpy. It's like being annoyed at water for being wet, but there it is.

Personally, I can't imagine not wanting to shout the news to the whole world, much less to my general acquaintance - having a baby is exciting! And then, of course, I personally am obsessed about birth stories these days, one way and another. ;P

Anyway, I got a little mild revenge (which satisfies my super-sensitive, rather petty-this-week self) by posting gushing congratulations and such to the list we're all on. Snarky? Guilty! Petty? Damn straight! Exactly what I would have said for real? Definitely! What made it snarky and petty was posting it before they made any kind of announcement at all. ;P But I don't feel at all bad - they might never have done so anyway.

But being petty and then dwelling on it makes my soul all sticky, so here's a kyoooote kitteh picture to leave you with!

Bleh.

Igor has been apparently trying out for gymnastics and karate championships simultaneously today. I can't blame the little bugger, it won't have the space for it too much longer... but still. It's not painful at all, but it's not precisely comfortable, either.

I have been wondering, on and off, whether I'll miss the feeling of the little one moving around inside me. I'm sure that by the time Igor's born I'll be glad to be done gestating, but... Just one of those random pregnancy wonderings, I guess.

For Br. Vincent

This takes you back, doesn't it?

(for everyone else, this is supposed to be a .gif that's a LoTR parody... but Blogger apparently doesn't like animated gifs. :( )