Wine Please

Posted By Colleen on December 21, 2009

Oh yeah, I was pregnant.

Correction. I still am. And largely so, it seems. According to Baby Center, I’m 18 weeks. I tend to lose track until I get that weekly update from them telling me what food item my baby now compares to: “your baby is now the size of a blueberry!”, “your baby is now the size of an apple!”, “your baby is now the size of an Eggo waffle!” Thankfully the nausea and most of the heartburn has abated, thanks to all the well-wishes. Or maybe all the snot from all the colds I’ve gotten recently. But I’m going with well-wishes being the reason I can look at or hear about food without gagging, and slapping a hand over my mouth to keep the fire contained.

And while I was sick with consecutive colds (and one that was nice enough to turn into a 2-week sinus infection ordeal), we visited with family for Thanksgiving and I got to see my sister-in-law who is two weeks ahead of me, gestationally, though you’d swear she was two months behind me. She had this cute little bump that looked only as if she ate a big dinner; meanwhile, I was unknowingly knocking over any child under 36 inches tall by bashing them in the skull with my belly.

Okay. There were a few times that I knowingly knocked a kid over with my belly. But he deserved it. And I still got away with it.

Since we only have nephews, one on my side, six on Justin’s side, it has now become the Unofficial Race for the First Girl. Okay, not really, since that will probably jinx both of us into having boys. Again. But still kinda fun since she is supposed to find out this week, and we’re scheduled to find out next week.

After that, we’ll have the Unofficial Race to the Biggest Baby, of which I think we’ll both want to lose.

And the Unofficial Race to Who Has Theirs First, since we’re only two weeks apart and I’ve already got the go-ahead for an induction a week early if I’m nowhere near labor and this kid ends up anywhere near the size that Gavin and Cooper were, and that when they did the first sonogram the baby measured small, so my original due date of May 19th was pushed to May 23rd. Which means next week’s “anatomy survey” sonogram will not only make sure this kids has all his/her parts, like a single skull, brain matter, internal organs, appropriate number of limbs, boy or girl parts, but also a better handle on the size and if it will impact my due date. Thereby, heretofore, and whatnot, that means that if my due date gets pushed back to the 19th, and I get induced a week early cuz this kid a behemoth, there’s a much larger chance our kids will be born within a few days of each other.

But it’s all unofficial, so it really doesn’t matter, right?

Category: Pregnancy | 4 Comments »
Tags: baby, challenges, Gavin, holidays, ramblings of a sleep-deprived woman, suburban mom, working mom

Posted By Colleen on November 30, 2009

Since I have been a huge slacker, due to work, Justin traveling, back-to-back-to-back (yes, three) colds, Thanksgiving, and a short, but all-consuming obsession with all things “Twilight”-related, I am reposting Justin’s article from this past Sunday. I will certainly miss checking on his perspective of things and the funny pics he takes while on his travels that end up on his site. Most of all, I will miss the time we’d spend together editing his big and/or more important posts, especially the ones regarding the births and milestones of our kids.

(Originally Posted on Sunday, November 29, 2009 at www.justinrummel.com)

I have maintained a personal site now for over a decade where I have generated:

* almost 500 articles
* posted over 6100 pictures
* archived too many memories to recount

This site has been my learning playground of PHP scripting and site design, which has helped me greatly in my professional life and my abilities to contribute to open source communities.

With that, I’ve decided to stop posting personal updates. This decision did not manifest because I became overly security conscious of identity thieves, but because of my professional life now deals with highly technical and smart individuals who can easily profile me professionally and create prejudices before we even meet. With that, beginning in 2010 this site will change to a purely professional site that won’t hold much more than a bio, resume, and current events that I may be attending in a professional environment.

It has been fun and I will miss writing articles of new adventures that Gavin and Cooper experience, and Baby #3 will never exist on this site which is sad. However, I now have a Flickr Pro account where I can upload as many pictures as I desire, and Colleen always has her site to get family updates.

-Justin

Category: General | 2 Comments »
Tags: End of an Era, Justin, justinrummel.com

Posted By Colleen on November 12, 2009

While this pregnancy has, in a way, been considerably easier than my last two, I’ve definitely had a much longer bout of morning sickness. It started sooner (right about 6 weeks), and even did a fancy time-shift going from wake-up to 3pm nausea to 4pm-10pm nausea. This has made cooking dinner very challenging as most cooked foods send me screaming from the kitchen. But the real pain has been the unrelenting, hellacious heartburn.

I’m sure it’s not helped by the fact that I battle my evening sickness with citrus fruit salad, high-fat cheese (smoked gouda!!!), rich baked goods (cheese danishes), and spicy food. And I mean spicier than I would normally eat non-pregnant. Granted, I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to spicy foods, but still…I’m now eating foods that make my nose run and make me sweat.

Unfortunately the heartburn doesn’t seem to respond to Tums, and only seems to get marginally better with ice cream or San Pellegrino sparkling water. Don’t give me no crappy metallic-tasting Perrier…it had been be that Italian stuff or nothing.
I digress.
Nothing really seems to help the heartburn, even without fanning the flames with my anti-nausea weapons. In fact, it seems to have slowly crept up my esophagus, into my throat, and after a few weeks, I swear it is burning the roof of my mouth. Which doesn’t help my citrus or spicy habit.

I’ve also been extra crabby, brought on by sleep deprivation, a sore back, and Justin being out of town again. Add in kids that have been extra whiney and a fairly heavy homework load for a five year old this week, and you have the makings of a pregnant Dragon Lady.

So this afternoon when I sneezed? For half a second I wasn’t sure if I would sneeze out puke or fire. Neither were appealing, though for some reason, sneezing flaming puke got me laughing at myself while I sat in my dark little cube.

Guess I should add the qualifier “crazy” to the title, eh?

Category: Pregnancy | 6 Comments »
Tags: ramblings of a sleep-deprived woman

Posted By Colleen on November 6, 2009

I think the pictures and the captions say more than I could. While I got there too late to catch the speakers (which I greatly regret), I still got to see all the people, all their t-shirts, all their signs, and, like when I went to the Tax Day Tea Party in April, got to enjoy in the comradarie of thousands of people joined together for an important cause.

What is the saddest thing is that I’ve yet to see any news coverage (though I admit I missed our local Fox 10pm news). One of the other sad things was that when an 80-something year old priest, who had one of the 2,000+ pages of the current version of the Health Care bill, tore the page in half in the office of a member of the House, that house member felt “threatened” and had the priest handcuffed, arrested, and removed bodily for “demonstrating”. Once the police brought him outside, fellow protesters surrounded him, offering him words of encouragement and comfort, and sang patriotic hymns, but it seems all the activity was too much for him and he was taken away in an ambulance. One man I met caught some of this example of overreaction by the House and police on video, but I’ve had trouble finding where he may have posted it. If I come across it, I’ll be sure to post it.
Meanwhile, enjoy the pics:

p.s. I would like to dedicate all these pics to those who weren’t able to come and join us, but were there in spirit.

Update: Another local blogger caught wind of the idiot who represents my House district, Gerry Connolly, trying to arrest a constituent on assault…for touching his arm.

Category: General | Comments Off
Tags: Health Care, political, sick of it all

Posted By Colleen on November 5, 2009

Again.

Don’t know about the rest of you, but this whole Health Care debacle…nearly 2,000 pages of non-transparent crap that essentially says the government would like to tax each and every one of us an additional 8-12% for the privilege of letting the government manage our health care for us…has gotten me really riled up. I actually like my health care. I like it a lot. Now, last year I didn’t…so I changed insurance companies and have been ecstatic about their level of professionalism and coverage ever since. When Gavin decided to crack his head open this summer? The ER visit only cost us $75. All preventative care is covered 100%. Other care is well-covered, too. I had the option of taking another high-deductible PPO, but opted for this plan instead, even though it costs more in premiums. But that’s because in my mind, health care and health care coverage is one of my top priorities (besides when I can score my next cheese danish). I know some folks out there, most of them a good 10 years younger, who do not make health care coverage a high priority, so they get the low-premium, high-deductible plan. Or they are short on money and take the gamble against getting sick or injured and take no plan. Personally, I think that’s crazy, but that’s their own decision to make. Who am I to judge how they manage their lives?

Unfortunately the government doesn’t seem to think that any of us are qualified to make our own decisions about our health care or that of our families. So I’m going to go to Washington and join the likes of Mark Levin, local Conservative radio host Chris Plante, some members of Congress, and a bunch of Smart Girls and Tea Partiers to tell the rest of Congress to get their crap together and back some real reform. Not a take-over. Not irrational mandates. Not something that will run each of us, and the country, into the poorhouse.

Interested? Come join me at 12 noon at the East West Capitol steps. Or wander between the two like me, since I have a poor sense of direction anytime I’m downtown. I blame it on all the buildings interfering with my natural global positioning systems.

Category: Adventures | 5 Comments »
Tags: political, sick of it all