Showered

Having a cold while 8 months pregnant is not a lot of fun. I mean, sure, the snotty nose and the chapped lips and red nose and the hacking cough are attractive and all. And the daily doses of Benadryl helps one sleep. But, seriously. Coughing HURTS right now. On Saturday I was driving home from the race track wondering how I was going to keep breathing, because I had coughed enough to pull something (muscle? ligament that attaches to ribs and keeps entire belly from spilling to the floor? who knows...) and make it painful not only to cough more, but also to breathe. Fortunately, the breathing part got less painful, and John was nice enough to swing by the drug store to get me some Tussin. Which really works, incredibly. I am impressed. And even more impressed by the fact that the midwife told me I could take it. AND sudafed, or Zyrtec, or Claratin. Score! I can be a druggie! This was the icky midwife who I hate (for no other reason than that she was half an hour late for my appointment the first time I saw her), so her giving me permission to be a druggie scored her some mild brownie points. She's still not cool, but I might not as actively hate her guts any more.

Anyway, Rocky's room is in full disaster mode right now. I should take a picture. It's impressive. COVERED, wall to wall, with baby shower gifts. Because last week was officially "week of a gazillion baby showers." Which was way fun, but is leaving enormous expectant mom with way lots of work to do. Might be time to call in reinforcements to help me sort - Christie Zukor, come on down!!

Thanksgiving in the Arctic Circle was nice, by the way. Saw John's family on Thursday in Geneva, spent Friday in Lansing doing a little shopping and a lot of eating (Dad made Thanksgiving dinner again - yum!), and then Saturday we went to Baker's Acres in Lansing for my New York baby shower. It was fun to see family and friends who I only tend to see at weddings. Suppose that means I should get home more. Plus three of my high school girl friends were able to come, so it was great to eat lunch with them (and they only scared me a little bit with their birthing stories!). Two of the girls are expecting babies again - Gretchen in March, and Michelle in June, I think. So we were officially the preggo table.

Family and friends in Lansing were WAY too good to Rocky. We jammed as much as we could in to our car, while still leaving CoCo a miniscule space to sleep, and had to leave about half the stuff in Dad's garage for him to bring down at Christmas. We'll just hope Rocky stays inside me til then. Hmmm. Although for insurance purposes, it's SURE be nice if you'd pop out before December 31, Rock. Maybe we can cut a deal - born December 29, maybe? Or 30?

Shower gifts already covered the bed in Rocky's room, so I had to shift gift stashing to the floor when I brought home all the cute stuff from a baby shower that the ladies at work had for me. It was great - ate WAY too much food at the restaurant across the street, and got some great gifts for Rocky.

Saturday while I was at the race track (working, not gambling away Rocky's college fund) John went to Babies R Us to pick up our new crib, and then moved his computer desk and a book case down to the basement and set up the crib. So we now have a real, honest-to-goodness place for a kid to sleep. Along with a kick-ass Pack-n-play that will eventually live in the living room (after Christmas), and a bassinet that our awesome friends are letting us borrow, that is going to go... somewhere. Perhaps in the attic? On the roof? We're fast running out of room here, folks. Were it not winter and a little bit chilly I'd stash the bassinet (with kid included) on the deck... What? I'd maybe put some mosquito netting over it.

And THEN, we went to a Christmas party at our friend Gianna's house on Saturday night that turned out to be... a surprise baby shower for us! How fun is that?? Our friends are awesome. It was a fun baby shower - guys and girls, so basically it was a fun party with plenty of booze and food, and some baby gifts and packs of diapers thrown in for good measure. Along with a fun baby quiz developed by Ms. Zukor, and a raw egg with a face that John and I had to care for, without breaking, for the evening. John, smart engineer that he is, promptly converted a candle holder in to an instant infant carrier, making life much easier on both of us. Christie was a bit horrified, but DUDE - I am NOT carrying this child everywhere, all day long! If I were to do that, then why would I need such things as strollers, car seats, pack-n-plays, and cribs? He survived in his candle holder all night - as parents we already ROCK! :-) Soon as Christie sends some pictures I'll download a few to post here for you. Maria already sent some fun ones, but they're on Shutterfly, which doesn't allow you to download for free, thus limiting my access and ability to post here on Blogger. Seriously - if you are researching photo sharing programs, pick PICASA - free from Google, if you sign up for a google account (which you should do, anyway - Gmail rocks). Then you can share pictures with everyone, they can download them entirely for free (unlike SnapFish, which charges you, or Shutterfuly, which just doesn't seem to allow downloads unless I am too much of a moron to find that option), print them to a myriad of different photo printing places, AND they don't have to sign in to some silly website (ah-hem, SnapFish, grrrrrrrr) every time they get an email from you saying "cool, I have photos to share with you." Picasa rocks.

So this week's plan? Go to baby class tonight and HOPE and PRAY they don't show us a video of a C-Section (ick!), babysit for the Red Army tomorrow night so Santa can do some good buying of presents, pack up John to go to Vegas, enjoy sleeping in the middle of the bed for four days while he is gone (although I may have to kick the dog off to do so), and seriously TRY to organize at least some of the stuff in Rocky's room. Oh, yeah. Plus buy Christmas gifts, wrap them, write a Christmas letter, and write a billion thank-you notes to all the generous people who have filled my house to overflowing with fabulous baby stuff. Piece of cake!!