The scientist in me is sort of weirdly proud of the fact that my baby's first first is a vaccine.
A few weeks back, the doctor told us that we needed to make sure we were up to date on our whooping cough vaccine and to tell our friends and family the same. Anyone who was going to be spending significant time around the baby and hadn't had a booster in ten years was supposed to get one. So we spread the word and Kevin made an appointment to get his booster and a basic physical, during which he discovered that he'd had the booster just a few years ago.
This prompted me to call the doctor, and, sure enough, I'd received the booster just last year. I happily checked one more thing off the to-do list and didn't give it another thought.
Until the next doctor's appointment, when I was asked if I'd gotten the booster. I explained that I'd had it a year ago, and my doctor said I needed it again anyway. It turns out you're supposed to get one every pregnancy, between weeks 27 and 36, to pass the immunization on to the baby. It's not perfect, but it provides some protection until the kid can get a vaccine of his own (which I think happens at 2 months).
So after my appointment, I got to trek out and get the TDAP booster. Which was basically a non-event. I also have to get the flu shot before I give birth, but my doctor said to wait a couple more weeks for that, so I cover more of flu season. But I'm pleased to be starting off the kid's life the right way, getting his vaccinations started before he's even born. No preventable diseases here.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Overbooked
Last week I tried to do too much and burned out in a major way. I'd been feeling good, and I kept adding social events to my calendar without thinking too hard about it. It came around to bite me, as I should have expected. But I did at least find the time to recover.
After the baby shower, Kevin, Zach, and Sarah had plans to go to the baseball game. I had plans to finish my book and take a bubble bath. But since Autumn and Ben were in town and I didn't hate the previous baseball game I'd gone to, I decided to join the group instead. The game got off to a bit of a slow start, but it didn't end up lasting too long. I'm glad I went. The last several times we've seen Ben and Autumn I feel like we've barely hung out with them. I was busy with my sister-in-law's pre-wedding events or packing or moving or cleaning or just staying in a different part of the city. So it was nice to have a chance to catch up.
That led in to a Sunday spent playing board games with everyone down at Zach and Sarah's. Again, it was nice to throw responsibilities out the window. I'm not going to be able to do that for too much longer. But it did mean that I was starting to fall behind on housework with no plan for catching back up.
Monday night, Washington was playing their opening game of the football season. And since Monday Night Football isn't broadcast on local channels, we went to a bar to watch the game. This is where things really began to fall apart. I have a touch of insomnia and I'm exhausted all the time seemingly no matter what I do. So I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to stay out until 10:30 to watch the football game. It's not like I was going to be using that time to sleep anyway. It turns out I would have been using that time to relax and get ready for bed, and everything get pushed back farther because we were out late. It would have been worth it if we hadn't been destroyed so completely by the Steelers.
On Tuesday, I had the monthly ladies night with my neighbors. I was still feeling alright, and these are new relationships that I want to form and nourish. So even though these people aren't exactly my people, I joined them all for dinner and small talk. They're all nice and they're all moms, and it's good to be around other mothers when I'm so close to being one. It's nice to complain about some of the pregnancy stuff with the other pregnant women. But I also spend these evenings envisioning myself becoming a completely different person, and I'm never sure how I feel about that. On the surface, I don't have anything against becoming a "Suburban Wine Mom". I've been halfway there for years now. But I'm also not entirely ready for conversations about nannies and insane first birthdays.
The next evening I was supposed to go downtown for an alumni event. This was actually the first of all of these events to show up on my schedule, and I hadn't even committed to it until I scheduled 9:00 am doctor's appointment for Thursday. I figured that would give me a chance to sleep in and recover from staying out. But I hadn't quite counted on doing that for so many nights in a row. So when 2:00 rolled around and I was contemplating my second cup of tea to make it through the evening and Kevin expressed a lack of interest in going, I decided I wouldn't go either. Instead I went home and sat on the couch and finally started recovering from my whirlwind social life.
I did manage to sleep in on Thursday. And since I didn't have to go back to work after the doctor's appointment, I managed to bounce back from all this craziness pretty quickly. I even made a dent in the housework I hadn't done on Sunday, though I mostly just watched TV. I need to remember to balance my life and not push myself to exhaustion just because I'll be exhausted anyway. I only have a few precious weeks of relaxation left before the kid shows up, and I shouldn't waste them.
After the baby shower, Kevin, Zach, and Sarah had plans to go to the baseball game. I had plans to finish my book and take a bubble bath. But since Autumn and Ben were in town and I didn't hate the previous baseball game I'd gone to, I decided to join the group instead. The game got off to a bit of a slow start, but it didn't end up lasting too long. I'm glad I went. The last several times we've seen Ben and Autumn I feel like we've barely hung out with them. I was busy with my sister-in-law's pre-wedding events or packing or moving or cleaning or just staying in a different part of the city. So it was nice to have a chance to catch up.
That led in to a Sunday spent playing board games with everyone down at Zach and Sarah's. Again, it was nice to throw responsibilities out the window. I'm not going to be able to do that for too much longer. But it did mean that I was starting to fall behind on housework with no plan for catching back up.
Monday night, Washington was playing their opening game of the football season. And since Monday Night Football isn't broadcast on local channels, we went to a bar to watch the game. This is where things really began to fall apart. I have a touch of insomnia and I'm exhausted all the time seemingly no matter what I do. So I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to stay out until 10:30 to watch the football game. It's not like I was going to be using that time to sleep anyway. It turns out I would have been using that time to relax and get ready for bed, and everything get pushed back farther because we were out late. It would have been worth it if we hadn't been destroyed so completely by the Steelers.
On Tuesday, I had the monthly ladies night with my neighbors. I was still feeling alright, and these are new relationships that I want to form and nourish. So even though these people aren't exactly my people, I joined them all for dinner and small talk. They're all nice and they're all moms, and it's good to be around other mothers when I'm so close to being one. It's nice to complain about some of the pregnancy stuff with the other pregnant women. But I also spend these evenings envisioning myself becoming a completely different person, and I'm never sure how I feel about that. On the surface, I don't have anything against becoming a "Suburban Wine Mom". I've been halfway there for years now. But I'm also not entirely ready for conversations about nannies and insane first birthdays.
The next evening I was supposed to go downtown for an alumni event. This was actually the first of all of these events to show up on my schedule, and I hadn't even committed to it until I scheduled 9:00 am doctor's appointment for Thursday. I figured that would give me a chance to sleep in and recover from staying out. But I hadn't quite counted on doing that for so many nights in a row. So when 2:00 rolled around and I was contemplating my second cup of tea to make it through the evening and Kevin expressed a lack of interest in going, I decided I wouldn't go either. Instead I went home and sat on the couch and finally started recovering from my whirlwind social life.
I did manage to sleep in on Thursday. And since I didn't have to go back to work after the doctor's appointment, I managed to bounce back from all this craziness pretty quickly. I even made a dent in the housework I hadn't done on Sunday, though I mostly just watched TV. I need to remember to balance my life and not push myself to exhaustion just because I'll be exhausted anyway. I only have a few precious weeks of relaxation left before the kid shows up, and I shouldn't waste them.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Baby Shower
The weekend after Labor Day, Zach and Sarah threw us a baby shower. We had originally thought to do it back in August, but between moving and various other family and friend events, we weren't at all sure we'd be able to get a registry put together in time, let alone find a weekend for the party. So it got pushed back a bit, which ultimately worked well.
Zach and Sarah made all sorts of brunch food and Jen provided a couple of juices that were delicious with or without champagne added. We skipped over the typical baby shower games in favor of just visiting with everyone, which is much more our speed. And we even got a surprise visit from Ben and Autumn, who came down from NYC to attend.
It was a lot of fun to eat delicious food I didn't have to cook and sit in a chair and chat with people. We got a bunch of cute baby stuff with a decidedly Star Wars theme. I may have to work to balance that out with some Star Trek gear. It was nice and low-key and a whole lot of fun.
Zach and Sarah made all sorts of brunch food and Jen provided a couple of juices that were delicious with or without champagne added. We skipped over the typical baby shower games in favor of just visiting with everyone, which is much more our speed. And we even got a surprise visit from Ben and Autumn, who came down from NYC to attend.
It was a lot of fun to eat delicious food I didn't have to cook and sit in a chair and chat with people. We got a bunch of cute baby stuff with a decidedly Star Wars theme. I may have to work to balance that out with some Star Trek gear. It was nice and low-key and a whole lot of fun.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Last Weekend Alone
Over Labor Day Weekend, Kevin traveled to New Orleans for the Bachelor Party of our future brother-in-law. So I got the house all to myself for three days. It was nice to have a chance to relax with no demands before the baby came. Especially since it's the last time I'll get a whole weekend to myself like that for years probably.
I stopped by the mall on my way home on Friday to pick up some bubble bath and lounge pants. I also got a couple of new books and went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, as I always try to do when Kevin isn't around. I was expecting Hurricane Hermine to hit, and I was ready for a cozy, rainy weekend.
Of course, Hermine ended up skipping past DC, leaving us with muggy weather and no rain. But I suppose I shouldn't really complain. Even though it never ended up cooling off enough for me to really enjoy a bath.
The lack of rain did mean that I was able to drive out to the used bookstore and get a stack of new-to-me books. I've found that used bookstores can be really hit or miss. The last two times I went out, I was only able to find one book I wanted to buy. But this time I found a whole bunch. So I now have enough books to get me through the rest of my pregnancy, and probably the rest of the year.
I also had grand plans to clean the house over the weekend. I ended up cleaning two toilets and the shower. But at least I did that much, along with a whole bunch of laundry. I just get tired and achy too easily to really stay on top of the housework lately. We should probably hire someone to come in before the baby comes. And maybe once after the baby comes while I'm still healing.
Other than that, I mostly spent the weekend reading and watching TV. I managed to get all of Kina's walks in. But I was definitely at the limit of being able to take care of myself and two animals. If Kevin needs to leave again before the baby comes, I'll have to get someone to come stay with me. Still, it was nice to have a few days on my own as a sort of last hurrah before life gets really crazy and demanding.
I stopped by the mall on my way home on Friday to pick up some bubble bath and lounge pants. I also got a couple of new books and went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, as I always try to do when Kevin isn't around. I was expecting Hurricane Hermine to hit, and I was ready for a cozy, rainy weekend.
Of course, Hermine ended up skipping past DC, leaving us with muggy weather and no rain. But I suppose I shouldn't really complain. Even though it never ended up cooling off enough for me to really enjoy a bath.
The lack of rain did mean that I was able to drive out to the used bookstore and get a stack of new-to-me books. I've found that used bookstores can be really hit or miss. The last two times I went out, I was only able to find one book I wanted to buy. But this time I found a whole bunch. So I now have enough books to get me through the rest of my pregnancy, and probably the rest of the year.
I also had grand plans to clean the house over the weekend. I ended up cleaning two toilets and the shower. But at least I did that much, along with a whole bunch of laundry. I just get tired and achy too easily to really stay on top of the housework lately. We should probably hire someone to come in before the baby comes. And maybe once after the baby comes while I'm still healing.
Other than that, I mostly spent the weekend reading and watching TV. I managed to get all of Kina's walks in. But I was definitely at the limit of being able to take care of myself and two animals. If Kevin needs to leave again before the baby comes, I'll have to get someone to come stay with me. Still, it was nice to have a few days on my own as a sort of last hurrah before life gets really crazy and demanding.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
New York Wedding
The weekend after our housewarming party, we went up to New York for our friend Becca's wedding. This was actually the second wedding. The first one was in India the previous month with her new husband's family. But New York is much easier to travel to than India, so we just went to the second wedding.
Being a second wedding, the whole thing was relatively casual and a lot of fun. Becca and her husband decided to do a Quaker-style ceremony where they married themselves, since the legalities had already been taken care of. The venue was a museum with a strange inflatable art exhibit, a planetarium show, and a mansion we could have toured (but we missed it because I am too slow).
They had dinner and dancing in a room in the lower level of the museum, after everyone had had a chance to explore the exhibits. There was a live band, which was fun. Except that the room was a little too small for a live band. The noise ended up being a bit overwhelming, and I spent most of that part of the reception outside on the balcony, where there were some lovely, comfortable couches.
All in all it was a very fun weekend. We got a chance to see some people from college that we really don't see very often, since Becca ran in a broader social circle than us. There were some people out from the West Coast that we hardly ever see. We ended up spending most of the afternoon before the wedding at a brew-pub with friends that I'm not sure we've seen since our wedding. It was great to play games and swap stories.
Being a second wedding, the whole thing was relatively casual and a lot of fun. Becca and her husband decided to do a Quaker-style ceremony where they married themselves, since the legalities had already been taken care of. The venue was a museum with a strange inflatable art exhibit, a planetarium show, and a mansion we could have toured (but we missed it because I am too slow).
They had dinner and dancing in a room in the lower level of the museum, after everyone had had a chance to explore the exhibits. There was a live band, which was fun. Except that the room was a little too small for a live band. The noise ended up being a bit overwhelming, and I spent most of that part of the reception outside on the balcony, where there were some lovely, comfortable couches.
All in all it was a very fun weekend. We got a chance to see some people from college that we really don't see very often, since Becca ran in a broader social circle than us. There were some people out from the West Coast that we hardly ever see. We ended up spending most of the afternoon before the wedding at a brew-pub with friends that I'm not sure we've seen since our wedding. It was great to play games and swap stories.
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Housewarming
About a month after we moved in to our new house, we threw our housewarming party. We combined it with our annual crab feast and ended up inviting a ton of people. It was by far the biggest crab feast we've ever had, the first time we actually finished all of the crabs at the party.
We invited our usualy friend group, who always comes to these events. Kevin also extended the invitation to his new colleagues, who all came with their spouses. And we invited a few of our new neighbors which accidentally spiraled into inviting the whole neighborhood. Thankfully most of them were still out of town or otherwise busy due to summer vacation. But a few stopped by and it was nice to get to know them.
A bunch of people brought beer and wine, and we provided a keg and a cooler full of beer and soda. And even though people stayed up late playing beer pong, we almost ended the party with more alcohol than we started it with. We even gota fancy new cooler (full of Coronas).
The party was something of a whirlwind, and I wasn't really much help as a host in terms of cooking or cleaning. I tried to at least talk to everyone who stopped by, though, and it was nice to get to know some of the new neighbors.
The Monday after the party, we hauled the remainder of the keg up to the end of our driveway and invited our neighbors over to help us finish it. It was a nice, more low-key way to get to know some of them. Though the short notice did mean that even fewer people stopped by. But it was ultimately a very fun and successful housewarming party. It's been almost a month now, and Kevin is still working his way through the excess beer.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Falling Behind
It is astounding to me how easy it has become to fall behind on this blog. I used to get antsy if I went a week without posting. Now every time I turn around it seems like another month has gone by. I'm hoping this is a temporary thing. I'd hate to have this blog fall by the wayside completely. Especially because I enjoy going back and reading old entries and reminiscing about vacations and such. This is probably going to be the best record of the beginning of my kid's life, and if I fail to update it I'm worried that I'll just lose a lot of those memories.
But for now, the lack of updates is definitely due to my pregnancy, which is sapping all of my energy. It doesn't really help that I've also had a really busy social life lately on top of a weird work schedule that's leaving me more exhausted and stressed than normal. I find myself having to choose between walking the dog and washing the dishes or cooking dinner, because I literally only have the energy to do one thing after work before I just collapse on the couch and fall asleep.
Luckily Kevin is around to pick up a lot of the slack. His final work trip got pushed back far enough that he couldn't go. Which means that he's home to cook dinner and walk Kina and just generally do everything that involves standing and walking.
Today, though, I have the day off work. And I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night. And the house is almost clean (I'm about halfway through a sink full of dishes, but I had to sit down). So I'm devoting the day and my limited brain power to getting as caught up on this blog (and my book reviews) as I can.
My work schedule has been crazy. Well, not that crazy. But stressful. Especially for someone running on 6-7 hours of sleep a night. Which I know doesn't sound that bad, but I fall apart pretty quickly without 8 hours. The problem is that I don't have any PTO left that isn't devoted to maternity leave, and my company (well, HR) has been very resistant to me taking unpaid leave. So to deal with all the doctors appointments, both planned and unplanned, I've been working 9 hour days to build up as much of a buffer as I can. This pay period it happened to work out that I was able to use that time to get an extra day off. More typically though I've been working til 7 one night so I can leave at 4 another day. And since my commute takes anywhere between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours, (and sitting in the car is murder on my back lately), it's hard to get anything else done on work days. I try to use the weekends to catch up, but that doesn't always work out either.
The pregnancy itself is going alright. The kid is moving and there aren't any major health complications. I've been sleeping on the couch for weeks now, because it's easier on my back. I really miss the bed. But every time I try to sleep there, I wake up with my back muscles so tight that I'm having trouble breathing. Someday I'll be able to sleep in the bed again. In the meantime, I'm just moving slowly and trying to remember to eat healthy and counting down the weeks until I can finally put the kid down for five minutes.
And then the rest of my life has also been crazy busy. But that's the subject of another blog entry.
But for now, the lack of updates is definitely due to my pregnancy, which is sapping all of my energy. It doesn't really help that I've also had a really busy social life lately on top of a weird work schedule that's leaving me more exhausted and stressed than normal. I find myself having to choose between walking the dog and washing the dishes or cooking dinner, because I literally only have the energy to do one thing after work before I just collapse on the couch and fall asleep.
Luckily Kevin is around to pick up a lot of the slack. His final work trip got pushed back far enough that he couldn't go. Which means that he's home to cook dinner and walk Kina and just generally do everything that involves standing and walking.
Today, though, I have the day off work. And I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night. And the house is almost clean (I'm about halfway through a sink full of dishes, but I had to sit down). So I'm devoting the day and my limited brain power to getting as caught up on this blog (and my book reviews) as I can.
My work schedule has been crazy. Well, not that crazy. But stressful. Especially for someone running on 6-7 hours of sleep a night. Which I know doesn't sound that bad, but I fall apart pretty quickly without 8 hours. The problem is that I don't have any PTO left that isn't devoted to maternity leave, and my company (well, HR) has been very resistant to me taking unpaid leave. So to deal with all the doctors appointments, both planned and unplanned, I've been working 9 hour days to build up as much of a buffer as I can. This pay period it happened to work out that I was able to use that time to get an extra day off. More typically though I've been working til 7 one night so I can leave at 4 another day. And since my commute takes anywhere between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours, (and sitting in the car is murder on my back lately), it's hard to get anything else done on work days. I try to use the weekends to catch up, but that doesn't always work out either.
The pregnancy itself is going alright. The kid is moving and there aren't any major health complications. I've been sleeping on the couch for weeks now, because it's easier on my back. I really miss the bed. But every time I try to sleep there, I wake up with my back muscles so tight that I'm having trouble breathing. Someday I'll be able to sleep in the bed again. In the meantime, I'm just moving slowly and trying to remember to eat healthy and counting down the weeks until I can finally put the kid down for five minutes.
And then the rest of my life has also been crazy busy. But that's the subject of another blog entry.
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