Enjoying the Journey

I think most of the people who read this blog are familiar with Smugmug, but if not go check out the story or this post won’t make much sense.

Right now, every single employee of the company works customer support each week. We do it because it keeps everyone in touch with what our customers want. A few months ago, we started referring to anyone working customer support as “Support Heroes.” It boils down to many of us fondly remembering our comic book-reading days as well as the great feeling of pride we get from having fantastic customer support at Smugmug.

Anyways, the hero thing extended to a photo shoot we had at headquarters today. A few employees flew in from as far as Australia this week and we wanted to commemorate the occasion. The photos pretty much explain the rest:

Yes, I did shave my head. The rest of the photos can be seen here.

And now back to your regularly scheduled baby updates…..

I realized today when I attempted to strap on one of my favorite pairs of shoes that I am now incapable of getting in a good position to properly strap said shoes. I had to hold my breath and attempt the feat very quickly because it was immensely uncomfortable. Suddenly all my fears of becoming a humongous hippopotamus of a woman during pregnancy came flooding back. I know that not 2 months ago I was posting about my excitement to finally start showing…I take it all back! I would love for people to not be able to tell I’m pregnant now. I still have 3 months to go, at this rate I will be huge! I have tripled in size in the last month, I swear! I keep saying “Peanette, SLOW DOWN!”

In addition to the unhappiness I feel in realizing that I may, in fact, be gaining to much weight. There is a certain level of discomfort I am experiencing in everyday activities that I heard about, but never actually believed would happen until now. I thought, “yeah maybe during the last month or so when the belly reaches it’s largest size, then I may feel a tad uncomfortable…”

No, no. I am uncomfortable all the time now. When I’m sitting I can’t get comfortable and I have to change positions all the time. When I try to sleep I can’t get comfortable enough to fall asleep, and then when I inevitably wake up a few times a night- my back hurts and I can’t fall asleep again. Plus, clothes don’t fit right, there are so many layers and everything has to be tucked in just right. I’m constantly re-tucking things where they need to be. It takes me so much longer to go to the bathroom now because it takes forever to arrange my clothing. Then there are the “hot flashes”. I am so hot one minute and cold the next. Especially when I’m trying to sleep, of course. So the covers on the bed are being tossed on and off all night.

It all adds very much to my general crankiness. And let’s face it, if that doesn’t improve soon it may force my husband to leave me. And, Joy! I have 3 more months of this and more to look forward to. Can you sense my enthusiasm?

One ray of sunshine is the fact that this is my last week with many of my sitting jobs. It may seem early to be throwing in the towel, but I started to realize that if I tried to stick with this all the way to the end of my pregnancy, I would go from watching other people’s children to watching my own with hardly any break. Plus, it was becoming harder and harder to have patience and energy with many of my charges, and I was starting to wonder if I really wanted to be a mom after all…Not a good thing to be contemplating at this point! I’m sure it’s just babysitting overload. So I’m keeping a few, especially my adorable niece and nephew, and the rest have already found new babysitters. I was worried for awhile that I would be bored, but at this point, I would almost welcome some boredom.

The other thing that happened last week is actually kind of embarrassing because I am already becoming a paranoid mommy. It’s not entirely my fault though because I have been encountered with 3 people I know losing babies in the last 2 weeks, and it started the wheels spinning in my head. Peanette has been a really good kicker and mover since I first felt her 6 weeks ago. I have felt her move more often and it’s been much stronger, especially recently. So last week when I hardly felt her move for 3 days, and when I did it was very faint, I of course panicked. I called my doctor and was seen right away for an ultrasound. To my complete relief, Peanette is fine. More than fine actually, she has a fantastic heartbeat and she was squirming around on the U/S. Plus, the doctor pointed out breathing motions in her rib area, babies between 26-28 weeks start “practicing” breathing motions. So that’s a really good sign. Apparently she’s just chillin’ out this week and giving me a break from the punching and kicking:) I was really relived, and I also felt a little sheepish at being so paranoid. Oh well. Better safe than sorry:)

So, I’m incredibly lucky because I have an amazing husband who whisked me away to Carmel for Valentine’s day. Not only that but he planned it so Cibo could come along. I thought it would be miserably cold, but to my surprise it was 60 degrees and sunny:). We stayed in a nice B&B that allows doggos, and we were just a few blocks from the beach. It also had a fireplace which was a nice touch. We checked in and then took Cibo and walked through town in search of a place to eat. We ended up at this great place that has a patio for people who want to dine with their pet, called Forge in the Forest. We got Cibo a “Quarter-Hounder” from the doggie menu (basically a hamburger patty) and some AMAZING fondue appetizer for us. True to form, Mark got a pizza and I got the Calamari steak, followed by a heavenly dessert of chocolate peanut-butter torte that literally had us scraping the plate clean. Cibo displayed surprisingly good manners among all the other doggos dining there, I was very proud:). I’m a bum and I forgot my camera at the hotel, otherwise I would have some great pictures from this fine-dining experience. But for now you will just have to imagine our adorable Cibo woofing down a whole quarter pound of hamburger meat and then looking at us like “ok, where’s my dessert”.

I do however have pictures of the next morning, when we walked Cibo to his favorite place in the whole world-the dog beach. It is the greatest sight to see Cibo running and galloping around in the sand and surf and playing with every dog he meets, especially for those of you who know Cibo. See, he has a unique sort of walk and run caused by elbow displasia since he was born. But when he gets excited he runs like a jackrabbit, his back legs flailing about. It’s hilarious, we could not stop laughing. He was the happiest dog in the world, and it made our Valentine’s Day all the more special.

Mark telling the Cibo what to do

Cibo completely ignoring these instructions and running to greet me:)

Cibo making friends with another doggo.

Mark and I soaking up the great Carmel atmosphere.

Mark is already sick of me taking pictures, this is his “put the camera away” face;)

We LOVE Carmel! (P.S. Notice how I’m totally hiding my belly?)

Cibo REALLY loves Carmel.

Cibo was really well-behaved at the beach….

…but then there was the car-ride home. Let’s just say he wasn’t happy about leaving the beach.

Hope your Valentine’s Day was just as fun. This will probably be the last time we can do anything like this for awhile so I’m really glad my hubby was so thoughtful. Thanks Peach!

Strange incident a couple of days ago…

I’m buying a book at Borders in a pretty form-fitting white maternity t-shirt and my surgical-green scrub pants from my medical assisting days (due to the fact that I only have 2 pairs of maternity pants and they were both dirty at the time), basically I was not concerned about my appearance since I was just planning on going babysitting afterwards. So the cashier starts making some small-talk with me about if I was a nurse(the scrub pants), and I answer, and he keeps talking and asking me questions about myself, and smiling. Suddenly I realize that this guy is hitting on me! He’s flirting with me and in my mind I am thinking “Hello! Can you not see the belly? I’m pregnant you idiot!” What’s the deal? Are guys just oblivious? Any woman would look at me and be able to guess right away that I am pregnant, did this guy just think I had a rather round gut? And that that is attractive?

Anyways, I finished buying my book and left after he asked me to “come back soon”, and I have been laughing about it ever since. I’m extremely flattered and also very puzzled.

There are some things in life I will just never understand.

But I have felt a little better about my fatness ever since, and I even felt confident enough to go buy another pair of maternity jeans that same day.

So after a few months agonizing over what bedding to buy and what colors I should adorn my nursury with, I had finally come to the conclusion that since I hadn’t found what I was looking for I would just have to make it myself. I was fully prepared to hunt down fabrics and sew a bumper, crib skirt, curtains, the works…

When low and behold, while strolling through PBK, not expecting to find anything since it’s not usually “my style”, I happened to behold exactly what I had been envisioning making for myself. The sales clerk said that this particular pattern had been selling like hotcakes and it would not be there for much longer. That decided it for me. I bought the bumper, crib skirt and sheet on the spot! I know that it’s maybe a bit early to be outfitting the entire nursery, but I just know if I had put off buying it, I would have come back and it would be gone. It’s fun to think about putting her in her crib, in this nursery that is finally starting to come together. Yay for PBK!