Porterfield Family

   Well…the baby is head-down! That’s what the doctor told me on Friday, she said she could feel it…How? I cannot…I mean, he has been all over the place. I think he was trying to stretch me out sideways, but NO…he is head-down. That must be his butt then, pushing on my ribs on the right side…I always thought baby’s turning into the head-down position would be easy to figure out, after all it is my body. I also thought that I would have more pressure on my bladder, pelvic region, hips etc., but I do not feel any difference. The doctor said that I do not experience any of that because he is still up high, so I am hoping he will stay up there. He is also having more hiccups, very cute and very annoying! They are very rhythmic, and feel like he is just trying to annoy me. He still prefers the right side of my body, so most of the kicking, moving, stretching and hiccupping happen on the right side. Strangely, while I prefer to sleep on my left side I do need to use a flat pillow under my belly, to keep it up a little. If I do not use it, he starts kicking and moving as if to say –“for God’s sakes woman I am not comfortable!” While I lay on my right side (where most of him is) I do not use any props, more than that I lay almost on my belly and he does not mind at all…so he either likes being smooshed or he just can’t move from my weight pushing on him…oops.

  Oh, and we got a chair for the baby’s room. It is not a thing of beauty; it is a thing of comfort! It was our compromise, we did very well compromising. We bought a chair we both thought was pretty pathetic looking…but, yeah there is a silver lining…it is a Laz-y-Boy (what Jason wanted), it reclines and rocks (what we both wanted) and it is not leather (what I wanted). So overall, we are pretty satisfied and feel very good about it. Oh marriage, those things you do…

   I am also supposed to gather my take-to-the-hospital things and figure out if I need a bigger bag…Jason and I were watching a “Baby Story” or something, and there they had a huge suitcase with them, so now Jason wants to make sure I have a bag big enough. I am procrastinating…well I got two pairs of super soft “hospital” socks for myself, after Jason threatened me…We do have a “take-the-kid-home” outfit…other than that I have not “gathered” anything. Do I really need that much stuff? I am planning on taking full advantage of hospital gowns and those sexy mesh postpartum panties. May be I’ll get some nice smelling shower gel and lotion, may be it will make me feel better post partum…right…

   I am not nervous about the actual labor and delivery (must be all the happy hormones) as much as the aftermath. My hormones will be all wacky, since I have been so non-emotional during pregnancy; I think I will be crazy post partum. I probably will get incredibly neurotic and overly sensitive and take out my frustrations on Jason and my mom (I already feel bad). But just imagining a tiny little baby who needs 24 hour care (I am the only one with boobs here), sore body, crazy hormonal changes and lack of sleep…Oh man, it will be hard…It better worth it!

     We finally had some rain!!! We so needed it. The rain came with lighting and thunder. Our rather large community is very much out in suburbia and surrounded by farm fields, battle fields and pastures. Whenever we get lightning and thunder it always feels like it is right above us. This Saturday was no different. Other than that we lost power and had to enjoy the light show in total darkness. More than that, it was late at night, so we were getting ready for bed and Charlie had nothing to do other than follow Jason around for "safety reasons", you know the "just-in-case-something-happens-dad-is-here-to-save-me" thing. She has not really shown any anxiety towards all the noise, I would call it concern and unease.

     While getting ready for bed, Jason walked into his closet and Charlie followed him. Normally she just sticks her head in there to check out for birds, food or who-knows-what. However, this time she got in there and sat right next to Jason all the time he was there and after he left she stayed in the closet! A couple of minutes later Jason told me that she was still in the closet, so I suggested to take her bed in there and see if she will stay all night in the closet. And guess what? She slept all night in the closet!!! She was hiding in there I assume…Such a chicken poop.

       It is so strange how a dog can be so exited about gun shots fired right over her head and be uncomfortable with fireworks (she did watch fireworks with curiosity while hiding behind Jason’s back) and lightning (well it was incredibly bright, even our shutters did not block it). Go figure… 

This is what my belly looks like. I am so getting love handles! No I am not exited about that, but I guess they come with the baby :) So far I do not have any complaints. I have been sleeping well and have not started with middle-of-the-night bathroom visits YET. No swelling to report, no pain either YET. I am sure it will come sooner or later.

So far I have gained about 26 pounds, a bit more than I wanted considering that I have at least 8 weeks to go and the baby is going to be growing very fast. Oh well, hopefully I will stay in 35 pound range, which is considered normal gain. I am not really worried about loosing weight after the baby is here, I just know it would not be hard.

It’s been a while since I have updated…let’s see…

Last weekend we went to PA to visit Jason’s paternal grandfather. He had some major surgeries and spent a lot of time in the hospital, so we thought it would be nice to drive up for a visit. He is at home now and doing much better!

It is a 3 hour ride and we originally planned to drive a car and leave Charlie with Jason’s mom and John (Charlie does not ride well in the car; she needs to be in the back of any sort of SUV). Unfortunately after our last visit to their house, we realized that she is way too comfortable with the pool now and can’t be left without supervision (originally we thought that she would just stay all day in the back yard, chasing birds and getting all the “crazy” out, so by the bed time she would be tired and not cause any problems). After some thinking we decided that it would be unfair to subject anybody to watching our dog all day long running like crazy in the back yard, jumping in and out of the pool or listening to her whining in the house.

I am at the point of the pregnancy when a 3 hour ride in a Jeep does not seem like a great idea (you know all that wonderful AC and comfy seats), so we ended up borrowing Jason’s parent’s Tahoe. To my surprise I had a really great time riding in it! Two words: lumbar support! I never cared for it in my life before, but pregnancy changes things.

The other reason we took Charlie with us was to meet a new family addition – Lilly. Theoretically Lilly is Jason’s half sister, well that if Lilly was human of course. She is a puppy!

I was hoping Charlie and Lily would make fast friends and end up enjoying each other a lot. Well, not so fast…Turns out Charlie’s “crazy” is no match to Lilly’s “puppy crazy”. Lilly did everything possible to get Charlie to play with her while Charlie did everything possible to figure out what exactly Lilly wanted from her. At some point Lilly was chasing Charlie around the kitchen table trying to grab her tail and Charlie was running away with that “I am so confused” look…I felt bad for both of them. One was just so desperate to play and the other one was just so perplexed. On the other hand, just imagine two big dogs playing in the house? That would have been a disaster!

Jason’s dad found a nice fenced-in ball field where we took both of them, in hopes to tire them out and may be let them play. Not so fast…here the picture was the opposite. Lilly’s “puppy crazy” was no match to Charlie’s “I-am-outside-crazy”. Here, Charlie went into “race horse” mode (where she runs as fast as she possibly can while trying to catch birds) and Lilly after a couple attempts to chase Charlie realized that her legs were not long enough yet to keep up with her, so she just sulked around near us. Well, at least Charlie was tired! Oh yeah, Charlie also managed to escape the field by somehow opening the gate (all the birds were on the other side of the fence), but she came back when Jason yelled at her.

So that was our PA visit in a nut shell. I will post pictures as soon as possible.

It was on Friday, the 6th. I am 27 now. I am cool with it, as long as Jason is the oldest one, I don't care :)

We did not do anything for my Birthday, literally - nothing! Neither one of us felt very good that Friday. I had Charlie Horse cramps on both legs at night while a whole half of my upper body fell asleep, so I was pretty much paralyzed for a couple of minutes...I was moaning in pain a little, but Jason did not wake up, so I had to suck it up. It did not last long though. I did not want to scare Jason, so I moaned very quietly just to see if he wakes up, he did not so I figured he was sleeping pretty good and it was not really worth waking him up. It was not so bad. The only thing was, I woke up so sore! I must have been sleeping in a wrong position.

Jason woke up with a horrible headache and his sinuses were bothering him a lot, so we just sat around the house all day, sulking. We had frozen pizza for dinner...Happy Birthday to me!

However, Jason did get me something I wanted for my B-Day - my super special MONKEY LAMPS! I wanted them so bad, but they were so expensive and it was hard to justify the purchase, but he got them for me!!! I love them!  

Yesterday we spent all day at Jason's parents' house. We took Charlie with us. They have a large back yard that is all fenced-in and of course the pool!

Charlie loves to swim! She has gotten so much better at jumping in. She is now like a "dock dog". She has absolutely no fear or hesitation, she just goes for it. Full speed, legs stretched out flying in! She HAS to retrieve something, if she jumps in the pool and there is no retrieving dummy in it she will go for whatever is around. Mostly noodles, so you have to make sure you have something she can retrieve.

It is amazing how she has all these instincts. I know this is what the breeding is all about, but you never think that a dog from a rescue would turn out to be such a great representative of her breed. I am not saying that she is perfect, she is not! Nevertheless, we love her, even though Jason tells her all the time that she is useless. All that time she spends sleeping! She could do some laundry or at least water the plants!

Anyways, yesterday Jason had a good idea of trimming her nails before going over to his mom's, so we did. Poor Charlie had blood gushing from her nails after all the running she did. We tried to stop the bleeding, but she would not sit still for a minute, so her nails kept bleeding and bleeding. Normally we would not really worry about it, but she was leaving her bloody stains all over the place, so we had to take her home early. She got good exercise though.

Once we dropped Charlie at home, Terry and John took us out for dinner and afterwards we watched a movie. Once it got dark John light up all his fireworks. Some were very pretty, others were pretty loud! We thought Little Jorge would have some sort of reaction to all the loud noises, but he did not, he moved around as he normally does but no more than usual. It was getting late, so I think he was sleeping mostly.

He has been a very good baby! He is almost on my schedule! He wakes up after about an hour after I do (around 6:30 am during workdays and around 7 am on weekends, he actually wakes me up on weekends). He is ready for bed at around 9 pm (he settles down). He does not kick me at night, unless I am squishing him and even then I just roll on the other side and he settles right in. He is most active in the morning while we are at work and after dinner. Now he is at the point where I can press on him a couple of times (mostly his knees) and he will push back, so that is what I do most of the time, I tease him by pushing him around. He will come out with a bunch of finger size dents on his body!

 The photo is not from yesterday, it was taken in our back "yard" on Monday.