tired... oh, so tired...

And I bet it's pup's fault!!!
I cannot sleep more than 5 hours straight (and that's tops, it usually lands at just above 4) and then I can't for all that is holy fall asleep again.
4am seems to be the magical hour, when I'm wide awake and too tired to get out of bed but can't for the life of me (and pup) snooze...

A day or two of that I can take. Or even a few (last week I blamed it on D for being too warm, but he's been at work since Tuesday...) but seriously, a week?
If this keeps up, I won't be able to stay at work much longer.
Today I've said a total of 5 words in a row, and all-in-all not even 100 of them (words that is). If you know me, you know how strange that is. I'm just not (read never) quiet.

I thought Saturday night would be my saviour, since I had all that exercise in the day, and forced myself to stay away until the staggering hour of 11pm (well, I had been awake since 3:30am, so it was a challenge). I was super confident that I would sleep straight through until the alarm would buzz at 6... Well, I was prepared for a toilet-break in the middle, but to fall asleep straight away afterwards.

HA!!!
3:30... I think I might have snoozed between 4:20 and 4:30 though...
Anyone think I was tired while walking the mile (10km) yesterday? Not so much while walking (which went fine, but slowly by the way. I was being good) but before, and after...
In the bus on the way home I was twitching as if mom had sat with a taser and repeatedly electrecuted me... Not funny! It's so embarrasing when it happens in public like that. The bed was lovely when I finally got in to it just before midnight.

You think I slept good tonight?
...
Well, NO! at 2:30 I woke up with the head-ache from hell. Took two panadol (2x500gr) and actually fell asleep again. Impressive.
I was less impressed when I woke up at 4:30 and it was still there, not reduced at all... I resorted to some "drastic" measures (though not endagering pup) and re-set the alarm from 6 to 6:45. When I woke up the headache was gone, but it felt like I hadn't slept at all.
It seriously felt like "Did someone get the furr-color of the werewolf who just ran over me?"

it was so nice!

the water exercises were divine!
Seriously, my muscles were singing with joy as the first round started this morning. It felt so good, my body was feeling so right. Didn't get very much contractions, not more than usual to begin with. Later I got some more, when we started stretching out the belly... Seriously, I thought that exercise was what was suppose to give you contractions, not just straightening your body out...

But I was a bit tenderized when it was all over at 4pm. And the uphill on the way home never wanted to end. And when E called and asked if I wanted to join her for pizza, I was very quick to comply. But I did the dishes first.

Now I'm slouching on the couch with some candy and a movie. Great load-up for the walk tomorrow, right ;)

(P)update

Just a little update, don't really feel like writing...

First out, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISTY!!!

and then, in no particular order:

• Chiropractor appointment went well, though the day in total was a disaster since we had apparently left a door open on the car last Monday, meaning the battery was totally drained.
• Pain-relief class went well, the movie made me cry *Duh! it had newborn babies...*
• Midwife appointment today went well, all tests were good and I hadn't gained too much since last time *phew* pup was asleep aka didn't kick the living shit out of the dopler this time.
• I'm feeling a bit blah and mopey, I'm fairly sure it's because of work.
• in week 36 we're having another ultrasound =D I thought it would only be a gyno-exam, but I was wrong. We get to sneak-peak at the pup once more before the arrival.
• tomorrow is the water-thingy, going to spend all day in the pools, doing various exercises.
  
• Sunday is the girls-mile (tjejmilen). Everyone seems shocked about me doing it. Seriously, what is so strange about a preggie walking 10 kilometers?
  

just another rainy Wednesday

Today's class (nursing and communicating) was a BIG improvement from last weeks... Mainly because it was about half the time shorter =)
We watched a movie about nursing, very 90's feeling, but still. It had newborn babies, I was the only one who cried...
I got into the preggie-yoga class, I know one other person going, my cousin =)
I'm going to my chiropractor tomorrow, he'll get to rearrange my pelvis/hips so that I'll be able to walk properly on Sunday.
Pup is being obnoxious again, trying to kick the laptop to the floor. A little while ago shim was doing something deep inside that hurt like hell. Don't know what it was, but I'm guessing a foot in a nerve-connection or something like that...

vintage wagon from 1954

The wagon/pram/carriage from 1954 that first cradled my mom (and later me on occasion) have been somewhat restored to it's former glory.
Father-in-law picked it to pieces, ground away the rust, replaced the whithered panels and re-painted it in it's original color. The brake still needs some lovin' though, but it should be an easy fix.
This piece of history will reside on our balcony, far away from snow and rain (because it gets hopelessly stuck if there is an inch of snow, I've tried...), as soon as we've fixed it up. Nothing fancy, just lay some wood on the floor and maybe re-paint the walls. Pup will sleep in this during the day, outside but still not, since we have glass on the balcony. Every baby to ever be placed in this wagon have snoozed as if drugged... might come in handy =)

exitement

Today I get to see how the old carriage turned out! *jumping up and down*

Work was blah, began at 6 'cos the other department were going to use our conveyor-belt to sort their stuff after us, so we needed to hurry. Said and done, wasn't really a problem since we got very little job. We were all unemployed by lunch. I stole some work from the upstairs people, but it only lasted me until half past 1. So at 2 I headed home =)

Lifted something sorta heavy today...
Pup gave me hell for that about an hour later... Really kicking hard. And kicking some internal organs I think... Vengeful little pup... wonder who that came from... me and D never take revenge upon one another
*looks innocent, polishing the halo, not realizing it's hanging askew on one of the horns...*

change of plans...

D's not feeling very good *snicker* so we're not going to his parents today. Sure, I could go alone, but it feels kinda... blah... We'll be going tomorrow instead.

Someone have dragged his sorry butt out of bed and (after a hour or so on the living room floor) taken a shower before going back to bed. I went down to Hesse and bought a big coke and a pack of french fries for him, he drank half of it and ate a staggering total of 10 fries...

JM called, seeming to be unorthodoxly frisky considering not only did he drink more, but when D went home, JM went to an after party... So I'm guessing he's still drunk, whereas my beloved (?) have passed into the wondrous land of hangovers. That's what he gets for bragging about never getting them *snicker*

I'm now settling into the sofa to read/write in the sisterhoodly New Moon and watch some episodes of Star Trek Enterprise (season 1, I've forgot just about everything since it's been so long...)

dinner party =)

Yesterday was pleasant.
We made plans with D's friend JM in the spring that we would take a weekend and go out to his family's cottage on a small island in Föglö. Since D's been working the way he has, and all the things that has piled up when he's been home, we still haven't made it out there. So, along comes this weekend. Both boys have the weekend off. We have nothing planned. Well, why not...

Of course, JM's parents were having a crayfish/crawfish party (kräftskiva) on Saturday, and even though we had planned to be there Friday night, it didn't suit them. *sigh*
So, change of plans. The boys decided that we'd just have a nice, really nice dinner together. All said and done, when I got home from work Friday, they went shopping. I stayed home, took a shower and just relaxed =)

Me and D took a turn out to mom's, measuring the crib and getting our minds on the same track for how to heighten it. Also showed mom the car-seat on the blog. She loved the blue color, surprise surprise...

So yesterday was sleeping in and taking it easy. D did the dishes and I folded a mountain of laundry (I know I said I'd do it earlier this week, but I fell asleep...), meaning our home is again somewhat presentable.
Around 3ish we went to JM's place and just hung out for a while, the boys tasting an expensive whiskey (they tested a few sorts through out the night, since both are whiskey-geeks) before deciding it was time to start cooking. I was placed in front of the TV with a movie. I had plans on reading and writing in New Moon (by the way, I got a package from Lily-my-love last Thursday, it was the book, a CD and 3 bags of Skittles...) but ended up just dozing off. I got to do an emergency run in the middle of it all, since the boys had forgot one thing and I was the only one fit to drive. No problem.

Dinner was as followed:
Starter: fried goat cheese (can't for the love of pup remember what that specific cheese is called, but it's common) with some ruccola, balm vinegar and pine seeds
Main course: roasted fillet of beef with root vegetables cooked in the same pan in the oven with home made garlic butter (this was my emergency, they realized they had no garlic and no butter...)
Dessert: orange-rice (oranges in pieces, boiled rice and whipped cream)

I wasn't the only one feeling preggers when dinner was over... =)
We had some fun, watching a classic movie (Robin Hood: Men in Tights) and then youtube'ing. The night ended at Dino's, I even tagged along for a coke. Lots of foreign people there, and well, I got tired so I went home at about 1:30. D stayed and came home little after 4, so he stayed till they closed. He still haven't woken up, so I don't know what the boys did the rest of the night, but I hope they had fun. He was quite drunk, so I'll let him sleep until noon.

We're going out to his parents today, checking out the old pram =) Father-in-law have been renovating it some, well needed since the brake was broken and some of the panels were coming off. He called the other day saying it was fixed, so I'm excited! I promise, I'll bring the camera!

shopping for the pup

Today we spent some money =)
Well, I consider it money well spent since it was for the pup's safety. It's a car-seat with a base, meaning you can "click" the car-seat into place and all that, for quick and easy access. I'm not very interested in that though, for me the benefit is being able to remove the pup without having to take away the cars seatbelt and re-wrap it every f-ing time...

Only negative thing about it, is that it's blue... There was a gray one, with lighter gray spots on the infant-padding (which is light blue on this one) and it was adorable. But I refuse to pay 40€ extra for "adorable", since the only difference was that the gray one was of the new fall collection. I felt this one at 149€ was OK though. It was the cheapest one available here (for once, what I had my heart set on was the cheaper choice *shock*)

It has a sun-shade that comes down, and I adore that feature! The base is also the only one you can mount with a two-point seatbelt. That's really handy!
Mr Longears tried out the seat. He's got some funny proportions, but I think it will fit the pup just fine anyway.Mr Longears will be trying out all the baby-gears as we get them home, just so you know.

If we don't end up in the archipelago this weekend we'll probably fix on the crib. It needs heightening paws. It's so freaking low. My granddad made it for my dad when he was born, and all kids who sleep in it sleep great 'cos it's so small.

busy schedule, again...

Today I called MVC (Mother Care Central) to tell them I won't be able to make it to two of the four classes for expecting parents. They was supposed to start next week and the stretch until 24th of September. Thing is, they were at Thursdays. Thursdays I have double training sessions...
Fortunately, the ongoing class have their last two classes this and next week. So, for baby-teachings and general agenda the coming weeks:

• Thursday 20/8: class about nurturing the relationship after becoming parents
• Monday 24/8: the Judo starts. If I wanted to, I'd be able to train Monday, Wednesday and Thursday
• Tuesday 25/8: class about nursing and communicating with your newborn baby
• Thursday 27/8: class about the delivery and the different painkillers. Also, delivery movie.
• Friday 28/8: Seeing the midwife at MVC
• Saturday 29/8: Water-convention. A day full of different exercise forms in water. 4 X 45minutes
• Sunday 30/8: Tjejmilen (Girlmile, 10km) in Stockholm
• Tuesday 1/9: the exercise-judo starts
• Thursday 3/9: the beginners from last year move up to join "our" kids in training, will be hell and chaos.
  
• Tuesday 8/9: class about the delivery, we're going up to the delivery ward and will be talking some more about the pain...
• Tuesday 8/9: the regular watergymnastics begin, for me Tuesdays and Thursdays
  
• Wednesday 9/9: the preggie watergymnastics begin
• Friday 11/9: Kick-Off at work =)
  
• Thursday 17/9: the preggie yoga begins (this is the one uncertain point, they start the registrations on Sunday, but I hope I'll get in)
• Saturday 19/9: company party, don't ask me why we have our x-mas party in the middle of the fall.
• Friday 25/9: D's 23rd birthday and my last day at work!!!

So, anyone think I'll keep busy?
Just to clarify the training:
Monday:
Tuesday: watergymnastics 6:30-7:30, exercise-judo 19-20
Wednesday: watergymnastics 18-19
Thursday: kids judo 18-19/ yoga 17:30-19, watergymnastics 20:10-21:10
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:

So, you see, I have plenty of free nights =) all in all, 5 sessions a week

the day at the sea...

A friend of the family swung by, showing of his skills on the "little" water scooter...
Boys will be boys, no matter how big they get. And the toys just gets more expensive...









D eating something, hungry as always...












The father-in-law eating liquorice












There were gargoyles on the boat =) check out the fangs and the freckles =)











preggie with camera...


















snapping pic's like this one. D and mother













Someone didn't appreciate being my favorite photo object

















But he got his revenge...

beautiful day = boat trip

We spent all day on the in-laws boat. Super nice! But tiring, the sea sucks like we say around here... I'm off to bed, but since we had both cameras along, I'll load some pictures tomorrow. Some here and a bunch on facebook, and on fb I'll even throw in one picture just for Terri/Obie to show her that I'm not kidding when I say I pick my belly pictures carefully. I look like a hippo on two feet...

Have a nice weekend people! DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!!!

picture update

I know I've been bad at updating, sorry!

I'm now 29 weeks pregnant (28 full weeks + 0 days), aka 7 months aka third/last trimester and this means "highly pregnant". 80 and a few days to delivery, 6 weeks and 1 day of work left.

The small picture is from the day we found out we were expecting a pup, the big one is taken today.


The picture to the far left is at 22 weeks, the beginning of the summer, and the other two are from today, just showing how different the bump looks depending on what I wear. Closest to here is work-wear by the way.

meeting people...

Today was a busy day, socially speaking at least.

M called, asking if I'd join her and her princesses in slipper-hunting (requirement: butterflies and LOTS of sparkle...) and the accompany them to the beach. I figured, sure, I haven't been to the beach all summer.
All said and done, I started cleaning up the living room. Not so much cleaning up really, just stowing away. And mainly taking down the two racks of dry laundry, which I dumped on the bed to be folded later. The on to the kitchen, there were some dishes left from the week, so I cleaned that up. I was done just in time to hit the town =)

After a little over two hours, I was back again, having roasted in the sun on a hot beach, talking about nothing really while we watched the girls swim and play in the pirate-ship. Also had home-made Italian ice cream. Really, really good! The smallest princess did find appropriate slippers, though they were off-white (shiny though) with a orange flower and some amber stones.

Well back home at 3pm, my mom called and we decided to go out to Bomarsund for the market/festival there. It would be open till 5 and well, we didn't really go for a bigger reason then to support their effort anyway. Had some coffee (mom), Åland-pancake (me) and then some "Ledholmare" (herring-burger) before heading on home. On the way, mom wondered if I'd be OK with going to see Elis, her first father-in-law. I was fine with it, he's a lovely man, completely clear in the head at the age of 97 and he loves when people come to see him. Turned out his granddaughter was there with her family, and she invited us down to her parents summerhouse for dinner. We tried to decline but was told that then we could just come along and talk =) We ate some (but not so much, herring-burgers still filling the tummy's) and it all tasted great! After dinner we started on home, but only got to the neighbouring cottage, and the next set of siblings. Of course we had to stop there too, and had some coffee and checked out the newly built cottage.
All in all very pleasant, but it was half past 9 when I got home, and then I had mom up to show her the mommy-box that we got yesterday, so it was almost 10 before she left.

And I still have the bed full of three batches of laundry needing to be folded...

pup on a leash...

I just realized, I'm going to be a bad mother... 'cos I will have a leash on the pup when shim gets old enough. Just read on one of the boards I roam that most people almost seems to think it equals child-abuse...
Seriously?
I love the leash! I started using it on the snowflake-girl when she at nearly 1½ years of age decided to start ripping her hand out of my grip and run down the street, CHASING DELIVERY-TRUCKS! And I mean the full-size ones. She started walking at 7 months, so at that time, she was also a fast runner in a crowd, not reaching above the knees of people. Fortunately the truck was stopping (or God knows what disaster that would have ended in) to deliver goods, and I caught up with her as she stood in front of it, sound like this: "Brrrr.... Brrrrrrrrrr..... Wrrrrrrrrr"
Snowflake-girl ended up under my arm as I stalked into the nearest baby shop and said:
"I need a leash, NOW!" She laughed and presented me with three choices. I chose the one with the smallest setting and ventured out again. We didn't get halfway down the block before she ripped free of my hand and ran after a truck again... Only, this time she didn't get far. She was blubbing under her breath at me for several minutes, but she never protested against the harness since she knew it meant she didn't need to hold my hand if she didn't want to.
The leash have been used in babysitting situations after that, and the children have never objected to the harness. So I really don't see what harm it would do them. It's not like I ignore the kid just 'cos it's on a leash...

And for all you leash-haters, not all leashes/harnesses looks like dog-chains... I think this one is really cute!

raining, poring actually

Today was the annual red-cross market. They usually have good weather, but not this year. About an hour and a half after opening the market, the skies opened... It came down in buckets, and it just wouldn't stop. Kept at it for over 2 hours. I feel a bit sorry for the salesmen, missing out on selling their products, since the red-cross is a charity association.

I went clothes shopping a little, found a dress/tunic that will fit the rest of the pregnancy and it has buttons so that it can be used as nursing shirt later on. It's really soft and comfy. Thing is, it's not a preggie-wear, but standard womans department. Well, good for me I guess! I tried on some nursing bra's, but they were not a good fit. I have a nursing tanktop, so I think the bra shopping will have to wait until pup has arrived, also a good plan since I'm fairly sure the ladies have some more growing to do before this is over...
Also found a pair of thick, good quality black leggins that had a bit lace at the hem. I've been searching for a pair for a while now.

Might go dancing tonight, if I get some sissy's to come along ;) so, maybe I should go and decide what to wear...