Things...

There is a coworker of mine who is pregnant and due around the same time as I am, and she came up to me the other morning laughing and said, “My doctor said the strangest thing to me yesterday.” “What’s that?” I asked. She said, “He said I better gain 5 pounds in the next 2 weeks.” Since she’s barely showing (and she’s a tall, skinny heifer) I asked her how much she’s gained so far. Twelve pounds. I said, “Uh, yeah, you need to seriously start eating more so your baby will gain weight, especially since you’re at the end of your pregnancy.” I told her how my best friend got put on the Braum’s Shake Diet because she didn’t seem to be gaining enough weight. I can so not relate. Since I was already overweight before I got pregnant, I should be the one only gaining 12 pounds, but no, I’ve already gained 20. On the other hand, I am now obviously pregnant enough where complete strangers will ask me when my baby’s due without fear of me telling them I’m not pregnant. I no longer just look like a fat chick – now I look like a pregnant, fat chick. But I digress. The coworker also told me that her doctor said she is measuring small and he’s clearly concerned about how small her baby is. She also said that she doesn’t like to eat meat or sweets and all she likes are fruits and vegetables. I asked her if she likes ANYTHING fattening and she said chips, so I told her that she needs to be eating a bag of chips a day. Towards the end of our conversation, she laughed at the absurdity of her situation and I wanted to shake her. She clearly doesn’t understand and she’s not listening to anyone, so I stopped trying to convince her. I wish I could laugh things off that easily, but no – instead I’m obsessing about the fact that I was Group B strep positive early in the pregnancy and now I’ll have to have IV antibiotics before delivery and there’s still a slight chance the baby can get infected when she’s born. (Note to self: there’s a difference between researching to be informed and obsession. Stop reading scary information on the internet. Just stop. Now.)

I do have some progress to show you on the Batman socks, although it’s not much. My heart just hasn’t been into the knitting for some reason here lately. Too many other things on my mind I guess. But here’s what I’ve done so far:

Shopping

My good friend KatyaR and I went shopping on Sunday, looking mostly at baby girl items, and I was completely and utterly exhausted by the cuteness overload. Too. Much. Cute. Stuff. I managed to keep myself restrained because we already have a huge sack of hand-me-downs from a very lovely cousin and that should get us through the first 3 months easily. Besides, it’s not like they really need to be dressed all in frilly outfits when they are newborns anyway. We also looked at other general baby supplies and I was trying to take a mental inventory of the items I still have left over from when the boy was an infant (which, by the way, I should just stop trying to remember anything because it’s usually a horrible disaster). So there we were standing there in the aisle at Target and I loudly blurted out “I don’t even know what size nipples I have.” Katya looked at me like I’d lost my mind and I laughed as I realized what I’d just said. I went on to explain that I MEANT to say I wasn’t sure if I had newborn nipples for the milk collection bottles I have at home. She said, “I can’t wait to tell your husband what you just said.”

So many things to be outraged about, so little time

By now you’ve probably heard about the South Dakota anti-abortion bill that is causing a furor across the country. I knew it wouldn’t take long for someone to start trying to get these types of laws passed once Roberts and Alito were sworn in on the Supreme Court. Anyone taking any bets on whether Roe vs. Wade gets overturned? It’s just sad, especially how the SD bill even bans abortions on women who are victims of rape or incest. WTF??? My own state is trying to get some laws passed that make it more difficult to get abortions, even going so far as trying to pass a law that makes the doctor tell the patient that her fetus will experience pain. For any woman to be in that position, it’s tough enough without adding more stress and guilt. I have always believed that women should have the right to choose for themselves what is best for them. And don’t tell me “Well, she shouldn’t have been messing around then” or “she should have used birth control.” It’s nobody else’s business how the woman in question got pregnant and who are we or anyone else in this country to sit in judgement? Except that under the current regime, the country is slowly turning into a theocracy whereby the prez and his cronies can force their morality on everyone else. I expect this SD law will probably one day go to the Supreme Court (that Bush & Co. made sure was now tipped to the dangerously conservative) and we will see the rights of women set back decades.

And if that isn’t bad enough news, the Oklahoma House just overwhelming passed a law that would allow intelligent design to be taught in Oklahoma classrooms. There are articles about it here and here. As I have said before, Oklahoma is like the buckle of the Bible belt, so I guess it’s only fitting that the complete conversion to theocracy start here. Don’t get me wrong – I actually believe in God, but I also believe that every individual is entitled to their own beliefs. Don’t believe at all? Good for you – that’s absolutely your right too. The fact is intelligent design doesn’t belong in school. It is NOT SCIENCE. It is a faith-based belief that belongs in a faith-based institution, not an academic institution. The science testing scores in this state are abysmal enough without adding further harm by taking away all the scientific evidence of evolution. Me personally, I like to think that perhaps evolution is the process by which God created the Earth. But that’s just ME and how I reconcile it. Teach the kids FACTS in school and let them get the faith-based beliefs at church, and let them make up their own minds.

And then I was pointed to this Salon article when I was recently reading OkieFunk (which is a GREAT blog, by the way). The article gives several valid reasons why Bush should be impeached. There’s actually another article by Garrison Keillor HERE. Kurt with OkieFunk believes that the current political climate in Washington isn’t conducive to impeachment, and sadly, he is probably right. Apparently, right now it’s ok to lie and get us into a war that kills thousands of American troops and costs billions of dollars, and it’s ok to illegally wiretap US citizens, and it’s ok to authorize the torture of “enemy combatants”, not to mention giving a country that has known ties to 9-11 terrorists ties to our ports. But don’t dare have oral sex with an intern in the oval office and then lie about that. I'm just sayin’…

Doom and gloom

It’s 90 degrees here today. 90, which tops the record 85 set in 1976. Then we are getting a cold front and the rest of the week it will be in the 60’s. 60’s are still higher than normal for this time of year. Yet the current prez and his administration continue to say there is no such thing as global warming. My ass…

And speaking of my ass, I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I got out of the shower today, and you know what my first thought was? I look EXACTLY like Gloria the hippo on Madagascar. If you haven’t been lucky enough to see this movie 500 times as I have, here is what she looks like:

Right now I look exactly like her except not as gray and without the happy face. I still have 9 weeks to go with this baby and while that doesn’t sound like a long time, to a hippo-like, miserable, pregnant woman who gets kicked in the bladder all day, it’s a freaking eternity. My sacroiliac joint is doing funky things every time I wake up in the morning or sit for long periods of time, which is pretty much all day long because I don’t have the energy to do anything right now. I’m exhausted. And now the boy has decided to drive me insane by telling me he can’t do anything.
Me: “Honey, please pick up your shoes.”
Him: “I CAN’T!!!!”
Me: “Why can’t you?”
Him: “Because I just CAN’T!”
I don’t know who taught him this “can’t” word, but if I find out, it’s not going to be pretty.

I know it'll be over soon. I just need to buck up and keep my eyes on the goal here, which is a healthy baby. I CAN do this. (But I still reserve the right to bitch about it.)

Knitting update: I have no knitting to show right now because life sort of got in the way of my knitting plans. I’m still working on the Batman and Spiderman socks, but it’s just going to take a little while. I promise I will try to post pictures soon.