Happy Mother's Day!

Clearly, the thing to do the night before Mother's Day is write a blog post.  :)

It has been a pretty good week.  I'm actually feeling okay - still tired, but I think I'm starting to get used to it.  In any case, we finished off the time without Daddy without too much incident on our end (on his end it was an entirely different story - I'll get to that in a minute).  I know I say it all the time, but we are just so lucky to have such a great kid.  It is even more noticeable when I'm home alone with him for a few days.  He really is smart and funny, and just generally good.  Sometimes it makes me wonder what I did to deserve it, because I know part of it is parenting but the other part is just such luck.  

In any case, back to Carmen's trip.  Thursday night went pretty well - three guys taken in the first round.  Friday he went to Atlanta to be with a client who was expected to be drafted Friday night (2nd and 3rd rounds).  Around 5 pm, when Jayden and I were driving home, I get a call from Carmen and it was clear something was wrong just from the way he said "hello."  Turns out the client's mom's house had caught fire.  When he called, they had just finished evacuating the house and everyone was standing in the street watching the firefighters attempt to put out the blaze.  It turned out to be an electrical fire, and amazingly it really only affected a couple of rooms.  There was extensive smoke and water damage, and unfortunately much of the damage was in the client's room.  He lost a lot of his memorabilia and his clothing.  AND he didn't get drafted that night either.  The last time I spoke to Carmen, it was about 2 am his time and he was just driving to his hotel, after he finally got everyone situated in hotels and figured out what was happening the next day.  Amazingly for everyone, the client was drafted Saturday morning/afternoon, and was drafted by his hometown team, and the team where his father had played.  His dad actually helped announce the pick.  The damage to the home is pretty extensive, and they probably will never fully associate the draft with positive memories, except for hopefully it will be the beginning of a long and amazing career with the Falcons, or somewhere in the NFL.  And thank goodness the only damage was property damage.

In between phone call updates, Jayden and I sent Daddy this picture to see if we could help him smile a bit.  I knew I couldn't fix the problem, but I also know how much Jayden means to Carmen and usually a smiling Jayden can make either of us smile, no matter the circumstances.
(it worked this time, by the way)

I've been terrible at taking belly photos this pregnancy, so I tried to take one last Friday (33 weeks).  This clearly was at bedtime, and clearly Jayden wanted to participate.  So you get a bonus - Jayden picked his books, and a 33-week bump picture.

Saturday was Mommy and Jayden's last day alone, so I decided to make it a fun one.  After swim class we went to a train show in Fullerton.  We didn't take the train there because of the schedule, but we parked at the train station and got to see a train right as we were pulling in.  At the show there were a ton of toy trains, life-size trains and all kinds of other fun things.

The Amtrak leaving the station as we arrived.

Checking out the toy trains.
The other fun part of the day was that Jayden insisted on wearing two shirts, including a long-sleeve shirt on top.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except the temperature was literally 90 degrees that day.  It was brutal.  His cheeks were flushed, but he refused to take off either shirt.  I carried him as much as I could and tried to hydrate him as much as he'd allow.

The Disneyland train!  We got to go inside and blow the whistle and ring the bell.  Apparently the Disney train only leaves Disneyland for this event and no other time.  Pretty cool.  Jayden of course refused to either ring the bell or blow the whistle, so I did both while he sat there.  It was towards the end of our time there, so I think he was fading fast, especially considering the heat and the clothing choice.

I have no idea what this thing is called.  But it didn't move and Jayden was willing to pose, so I went with it.

Carmen came home Saturday night, after Jayden was asleep.  The airline managed to not load his bag on the plane somehow, so Carmen had that to contend with when he got home as well.  I was pretty much in bed asleep by the time he got home, poor guy.  I was just too tired.  Sunday was back to normal.  We did celebrate Daddy's birthday - he got his new pink shoes that Jayden bought for him for his birthday.  Carmen wanted cheesesteaks for dinner, which luckily for his son and pregnant wife was right next door to the frozen yogurt place!  

At Daddy's birthday dinner with our cheesesteaks and sunglasses.  

 And then a week of work and Juju's and "fun" ensued.  Wednesday night was rough for Carmen because he was trying to get all of the rookies signed before rookie camp started Thursday morning.  Thursday night was rough for me because I had to go to a cocktail reception where I couldn't drink, they didn't serve dinner and they didn't provide chairs.  Finally one of my board members found a chair in the hallway for me and my pretty much equally pregnant co-worker.  We were dying.  But we made it and I managed to have some self-control and not stop at Jack-in-the-Box on the way home for a "snack."  Thank goodness I had very little cash.

Assuming the position.  You can guess what Jayden is doing.  ;)

Jayden says: I'm crying because I called my mom an "old lady" and she won't give me candy until I take it back.
(it was clearly time for bedtime)

My Friday night tattooing my three year old.  I don't know about hand tattoos in real life, but the kind that last 20 minutes are awesome.

And today, Saturday, was the day I was dreading.  It was Ms. Stacy's last day teaching Jayden.  She was a mess.  Which made me a mess.  I definitely had tears.  We gave her a plant (that Jayden and I picked out yesterday at a garden store), a gift card and a card.  I found her on Facebook, and she put up a picture of her table at home later and it was completely covered in flowers, cards, gifts, etc.  She is just such an amazing person and has such an amazing talent as a swim teacher.  Maxwell's mom and I were talking today about how she manages to have the perfect balance of encouragement and discipline - so her students exceed expectations, work hard, but have an amazing time at the same time.

Floating with Ms. Stacy (for the last time)

Dancing on the block waiting to jump in.

Riding the surfboard with Maxwell.  Jayden jumped off two or three times, in the deep end, when he was supposed to just ride.  Ms. Stacy was just laughing.  

Hugs for Ms. Stacy.  This is when both she and I were crying.  I've explained to Jayden that he won't see her anymore, but honestly he doesn't totally understand.  And he knows he's still going to get to go to swim lessons, and that Maxwell will be there, so he's not that worried.  Maxwell's mom and I were joking today that we want them to be more sad about this, since we are so sad about it!
But her replacement has been teaching with her for the past two weeks and he's actually pretty cool.  I think he'll be good for the boys too, even though nobody can really replace Ms. Stacy.  

An action shot of Ms. Stacy tossing Jayden into the water.  They could do this all day.

After swim lessons and lunch we stopped by Old Navy to get some shorts for Jayden (he's constantly running out of shorts) and some clothes for his baby sister.  Of course Carmen also found two t-shirts to buy Jayden and I bought a few more baby clothes than I planned.  But I also decided she deserves to have a few new things of her own and that I don't really have pajamas or other clothes for her to wear when she first gets home.  And there was a big sale, so it all worked out.

In any case, long story short, we found a Superman hat that Jayden wanted and voluntarily wore.  He never wants to wear hats, except for sometimes his MJ hat.  He was very clear that his was not a baseball cap, this was a golf course cap.  He has an explanation for it, which Carmen and I only sort of understand - something about holes in the back.  Ask him about it the next time you see him and see if he explains it any better!

After naptime we had a birthday party to attend - the daughter of the woman who used to cut my hair turned 3.  So we drove up to Long Beach to celebrate.  They had a great idea and gave all the kids cupcakes, and let them put their own frosting and sprinkles on the cupcakes.  It was messy, but a ton of fun and a great activity for all of the kids to participate in. Jayden frosted his cupcake, put sprinkles on it, ate the top off, then re-frosted the cupcake and put more sprinkles on.  Such a great idea; I'm totally doing that the next time I make cupcakes!

Waiting for the "ready, set, GO!" to decorate.

Of course there was a bouncy house, and Jayden pretty much only left to eat the cupcake, and the one time he hurt his leg.  Bouncy houses are always a hit in his book.

And now it's Saturday night, aka Mother's Day eve, and I'm getting ready to go make the bed and go to bed.

I am now carrying around a canteloupe in my belly.    

She is about 4-3/4 or 5 pounds, and is about 18 inches long.  Assuming she makes it full-term, she'll end up around 8 pounds, and maybe 20ish inches.  She's adding about half a pound a week at this point, so it all depends on when she decides she's ready to come out.  Based on my work and the construction on our house, we're hoping she decides it's pretty comfortable in my belly and she stays until week 40 or so.  I don't really want to go over, but if that means the construction job is that much more done, I'll be okay.  

Her central nervous system is maturing, and her lungs are continuing to develop - she can take deep breaths.  At this point, if she happened to be born tomorrow, assuming she's otherwise healthy, she shouldn't have any major health problems.  She would still be considered "early" or "pre-term," up until 37 weeks.  Her eyes can blink and open and close when she's awake and asleep, respectively.  Her pupils dialte and constrict in reaction to light.  She sleeps frequently at this stage, probably because her brain is forming trillions of connections.  She actually is learning in the womb.  She may even have dreams, because her eyes dart around rapidly just as an adult's might in REM sleep.  

One of the websites I follow said fatigue is setting in again and that now is the time to slow down and save my energy.  Kind of makes me laugh.  Luckily I'm not overwhelmingly fatigued - but they are right that my nights are restless.  I wake up at least twice pretty much every night.  Thursday night, after standing for two hours and not really eating, I woke up probably four or five times with leg cramps, which were killer.  That will teach me to wear high heels when 34 weeks pregnant!

I still feel her moving regularly (which is important in life, generally!).  Her movements continue to be more thuds than tickles, and it is still difficult to tell where her head, rump, arms and legs are.  I often feel like she is sideways, especially when I'm laying on my side.  Hopefully in the next few weeks my doctor will have a better idea.  

I am starting to get a little anxious/nervous.  I'm going to pack a hospital bag for me and an overnight bag for Jayden this weekend.  And I'm going to pull the car seat out of storage and wash it so that it's ready for her.  I'll probably also put the bases in our cars, just in case.  I'm debating when to order our glider, but will probably do that in the next week or so.  And I'm ordering diapers this week, and going to figure out the bottle situation.  I need to make a reasonable list, but am sort of too overwhelmed to get started.  Nothing like making a to-do list on Mother's Day, right?!?

I hope all of the moms have a wonderful day tomorrow, no matter what you decide to do (or not do!).  We have the hardest, bestest job in the world, and none of us would trade it for the world, I'm sure.