Psychobabble

And I was heartily laughed at today.

I had a very simple plan for today. Get my editing done, look for freelancing work, finish laundry, meet Schmidtty for lunch, and then get a pedicure since I can no longer reach my feet. Only two things happened: the editing and the pedicure.

Shawn did some yardwork at his grandparents' house on Sunday. There's a huge fear of the possibility of poison ivy in their backyard, since no one has done any work out there in probably two years. Shawn said he didn't see any, so he wasn't overly concerned when he got back. Apparently there was some anyway, and he forearms broke out in a very familiar rash. I panicked as I'm almost deathly allergic to the stuff. Usually within 48 hours of a breakout, the poison goes systemic and will cover my entire body. The itching isn't as horrible as the fact that I look like an extra in a horror movie. It really is one of the last things I need at being 37 weeks pregnant. Well of course by Wednesday I broke out in a small patch on my thigh. He went to the doctor, received a cortisone shot and pills, and I planned to talk to my OB when I went in on Thursday. I relayed to him my fears and my patient history, but he wasn't overly concerned. He said the OTC medications should regulate it, but if they don't, call back. By Thursday night, more patches broke out. I found a patch this morning on my stomach. I was livid. I called my OB, they said to go to my PCP pronto for a shot. I managed to get in for a morning appointment, but then sat in the waiting room for over an hour. I called Schmidtty to reschedule lunch. Now my blood was starting to boil. When I finally was called back, the nurse even commented that my blood pressure was rather high. I didn't doubt it. I told my PCP about my history with poison ivy, but she didn't want to give me a shot or any pills since I was pregnant. She, despite my protesting, gave me a prescription ointment with the instructions to come back if it spreads further. I just know I'll be back there next week with a pizza face begging for a shot. I called Shawn in 9-month-preggo-crazy tears and yelled at him. He took me to lunch, which made me feel a little bad for yelling at him, but not bad enough to not blame him for this mess.

Then came the pedicure. I've never had a pedicure in my life because I don't like people touching my feet. I'm not sure I'll ever get a pedicure again. Apparently my feet needed a lot of work (aside from the fact that they were swollen beyond belief) and the girl needed to use an electric buffer to smooth out my heels. I swore to God that my feet were a bloody mess. They had to be. She said that if I came in every couple of weeks, I wouldn't have to go through that again, but hell, I'm not sure I want to risk it.

Am I being a baby about the pedicure? Possibly. But at this point, I really don't care. I'm so deathly afraid of reliving my poison ivy breakout when I was 13 that it has me at the brink of tears. Add in some 9-month-crazy with all the hormones and fear of labor... I need to just go and do nothing but play Kingdom Hearts 2 and eat ice cream for the rest of the day.
posted by Keri at 3:47 PM

Shawn and I started our weekly movie going yesterday with Iron Man. I know NOTHING about the comic. It just looked like a fun comic book movie, and that's all I wanted. It didn't disappoint, unlike a few other comic book movies that have as of late. It had wit, explosions, and a heavy use of the US Air Force. Of course we liked it. (Although, Shawn mentioned he enjoyed Transformers' use of the Air Force much better. I think it's because Transformers displayed what he actually does for a living, whereas Iron Man was more about pilots. It was still awesome to me.) The plot was a little predictable, but hey, that's comic book movies for you. Just hang on and enjoy the ride.

Next week: Speed Racer. Will it be as corny and bad as the cartoon? I can only hope.

I have been getting a lot of e-mails lately asking how I'm feeling. Honestly, I feel fine. Except for the occasional kicks to the ribs and bladder, stretches (they feel like he's trying to split me open Alien-style), and the fact that I tire more easily than usual, I'm great. We went to the Cottonwood Arts Festival on Saturday with Shawn's brother and uncle and walked around for a couple of hours. We had a great time, but I was absolutely useless the next day. Shawn went to visit some friends on Sunday and I told him to go alone. I wasn't ready to let go of the couch. Other than that, there's really nothing new to report. He hasn't dropped and I've had no real signs of imminent labor other than the Braxton Hicks contractions, but I've been having those since 14 weeks so really nothing new there. Although, I have been having a REAL hankering for fresh fruit lately. According to Shawn's grandmother, that's what put her into labor: eating half of a watermelon. I personally think that would put anyone into labor. Maybe it's a Honea thing to eat a lot of fruit in the final weeks. Or maybe I'm in danger of scurvy.
posted by Keri at 9:20 AM

Last night was the Stars' first home game for Round 2 of the playoffs, and we were there, thoroughly enjoying our free, ice-level seats. I have posted pictures of the game, but I wasn't able to take any of their salute to Shawn for his military service. They made me be a part of the Jumbotron action as well. As predicted, when the entire stadium stood up and clapped and cheered for Shawn, my eyes were completely wet. I'm glad they didn't ask me to say anything, because I'm not sure I would have been able to. They had a photographer take pictures of all of us after the ovation, so I hope that they will send us a copy.

Also posted is my nine month belly pic, since yesterday marked 36 weeks. I plan to post pictures when the baby drops and at 40 weeks, if I make it that far. Keep checking in as anything can happen as the weeks progress.
posted by Keri at 8:51 AM

As of tomorrow, I will have four weeks to go to my estimated due date. Lately I've gotten a lot of e-mails and text messages saying, "I can't believe you're going to be a mom any day now!" This is a formal request for all such messages to STOP. You're giving me panic attacks.

We went to our childbirthing class yesterday, that was not video-free but they didn't show a full-on-view of a baby entering the world. I was unfortunate enough to see The Miracle of Life when I was a sophomore in health class and the horrendous image has always been burned into my brain. I think all 15-year-old girls should see this movie, as it would probably promote abstinence far more than anything else tried so far. I know some people think it's beautiful, but in my opinion, there's a reason why delivery happens in an area you can't naturally see without mirrors: YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO.

The class was about six hours long and mostly a waste of time, but I left it feeling completely overwhelmed. A big reason why I never wanted to have children is because I never wanted to go through labor and delivery. Now that the clock is rapidly winding down towards that day, I'm freaking out. It's not about the labor pain. For some reason, that doesn't really scare me. The whole idea of pushing a cantaloupe through an opening the size of a lime without rippage and carnage freaks me out. For that reason alone, I half hope that he is a huge, Honea baby that will need a c-section. Surgery does not scare me in the slightest. You'd think that with all the med mal cases I've been on that I would be hesitant towards surgery, but not this kind of surgery. Most of my bad baby cases were about problems during vaginal deliveries. So some of my anxiety comes from this as well.

Ugh, I'm going to need a valium, or some amnesiac. I'm going to be one of THOSE Moms that nurses write "is hysterical" in their notes.
posted by Keri at 8:20 AM

When Shawn and I went to the Stars game last week, one of the local radio stations honored a military serviceman at the game with free tickets and some PR on the jumbotron. We looked into it when we got home, and found that it was a contest for people to nominate local servicemen for their accomplishments in the military. We figured, what the hell, and I nominated Shawn. Well, he won! We're going to the first Stars home game in Round Two of the playoffs, and Shawn will be honored at the game. I hope they don't make me join him on the jumbotron, because I know I'll cry. I tear up at almost every public salute to the military. Ever seen that commercial where a bunch of servicemen enter an American airport in their BDUs and everyone in the airport stops to clap? Gets me every time.

Well Nicole has officially lost the baby pool, and now we turn to Schmidtty, who predicts he'll come next week. Let's hope it's not at the Stars game or really at all next week. Give me at least a couple more weeks (which puts me in Severy's range) so at least I can go to the Stars game and the baseball game. It's weird that I'm at the point that it could happen at any time. The books are all telling me to get my bag packed now. With as uncomfortable as I am lately, it's probably not a bad idea.
posted by Keri at 9:02 AM

This past week truly was my last week at work. I trained the new paralegal on my cases, and I think he's going to do a fabulous job. I was asked to change my mind once more, but I didn't cave this time. I will admit that I have enjoyed my job a ton more in the last four weeks than I have the entire nine months I was there. It's amazing how much of a difference the absence of one person makes. They fired the attorney I worked for the following week I turned in my notice. He really was the big cause of all of my stress there (I won't say his name here for libel reasons, but before you hire an attorney for criminal representation in the DFW area, please contact me first so I can steer you from this low-life). It was amazing how much my stress levels dropped and how much more I enjoyed my job when I worked for other attorneys. I got to know the partners better, and I really wish I had worked for them since the beginning. If I had always worked just for them, I might have considered working up until Gabe was born. But then again, with as tired as I've been lately, I don't know if I could have physically handled working through all forty weeks. Saying goodbye was far sadder than I thought it would be. One of the partners hugged me and thanked me for everything, the firm admin gave me a stuffed bear for Gabe, the firm surprised me with a farewell cake, and my closest friends gave me a gift card to Gamestop. I'm actually going to miss going in everyday and seeing everyone there. A complete 180 from my last job, that's for sure. But then again, being unemployed was a far better option than my last job.

But with the end of this job, I'm closing the door on my paralegal career. It's been an interesting past seven years, but this was never meant to be a career for me. Crazy how that happens. Hopefully this means the door will open on my writing career. I do have the race to think about, after all (as Grue kindly reminded me last week).

However, until I can get serious about that, I have tons to do before Gabe is born. I'm really hoping he'll be on schedule or be late, as I have plans to get some fun out of the way, like seeing all the pre-summer movies releasing in early May and going to the Ticket's Great Game. I started some of the fun early and splurged this week for tickets to a Stars playoff game, which was a blast. Well, it was a blast until we left. Apparently a monsoon erupted while the game was going, and we had no umbrellas or any sort of cover with us. We walked the couple hundred yards to the train in the downpour. I was absolutely soaked. And of course, the train had to turn up the air conditioning to full blast. If I somehow don't get sick this weekend, I'll be amazed. I think that may be one reason why I've been so tired today. I had a G&R reunion breakfast this morning, and afterwards I took a two hour nap. Then a friend called, wanting to meet for coffee. I wanted to take a nap after that, too. I've never had mono, but I wonder if this is what it feels like.
posted by Keri at 9:35 PM

Yep, I already have my first burn of the year... in April, in 60 degree weather. My poor, poor fair skin. We went to a wedding yesterday afternoon at a Victorian house in the Swiss Avenue historical district that ended up being mostly outside. I was wearing a sleeveless and backless maternity dress (that now looks like a muu muu with my gargantuan belly) and ended up frying my shoulders, arms, face, and chest. I even have a lovely mark on my arm from my silver braided watch. Perfect. Not that I don't look like a beast as it is, with my rotund stomach and Barney Rubble feet. I nearly cried that morning when I couldn't put on my cute shoes due to the size of my feet. My flip flops didn't look horrible with the dress, but I didn't feel right about it as you should never wear flip flops to a wedding unless it's on the beach. I know that nobody cared, and nobody was even looking at my feet (they were probably looking at my reddening shoulders more than anything), but it still upset my hormonal self. Of course the bride, in her very typical fashion, went barefoot, so there really wasn't a shoe dresscode at all.

I've spent most of the day today on the couch, propping my feet up to try to drain the fluid. If my feet get too swollen, I start to walk differently, which strains my hamstrings, groin muscles, hips, bad knee, and lower back. I feel like I should be cleaning the house, but you know, as I'm working half days next week, there will be plenty of time to clean the house. In T minus six weeks, there will probably not be a point in cleaning the house, except to make sure Gabriel swallows a minimal amount of animal hair. (Really, the kid has no prayer with a cat, two dogs, and two chinchillas.)

Wish me luck next week as I try to get my cases as organized as possible with half days. I think they have hired someone who will start next week, so I can start dumping my case load on him and not stress out too much. Hahahahaha... me, the control freak not stress... I crack myself up.

Btw, 8 month preggo pics and baby shower pics should be up sometime tonight, so if the size of my stomach or pictures of me holding up baby merchandise intrigues you, check in later.
posted by Keri at 3:07 PM