Enjoying the Journey

I have recently read back on previous entries and was appalled to find that I have been very negative and pessimistic about my pregnancy, with very little written about the positive stuff. I feel totally embarrassed that I must come out looking so ungrateful for the blessing of being able to carry this baby, and have such a normal and healthy pregnancy. You must know that I don’t often complain about my pregnancy, except of course to Mark, outside this blog. I think I just find writing about my complaints therapeutic and so it all gets vented in my blog posts.

I am so excited to have this baby, to be a Mom and for all of the things I hope to accomplish in that role. I hope that I will be so many of the things my Mom was for me. I hope I can be selfless, patient, and unconditionally loving. I pray that I will be fun, energetic, and creative.

I resolve to spend the next 9 weeks of this pregnancy savoring every moment. I plan to enjoy the priceless blessing of being able to support life and bring a baby into this world. Instead of focusing on my impatience to see my baby, and the numerous unpleasantries of being pregnant-I want to spend these next 2 months enjoying the time I get to spend alone with my husband, and the small joy of being selfish with my time for just a bit longer.

I am so lucky that I got to do this just the way I wanted. I fell in love with a wonderful man whom I will be with forever. We have spent 3 years strengthening our relationship and enjoying being married. And now we are starting a family that we both want. I have no room to complain, and from here on out I plan to start acting like the luckiest woman alive, because I am. :)

Another week (week 30 to be exact), and a host of new pregnancy symptoms to whine about. That is what this post will be about, so if you don’t want to hear it, please don’t read further. Read more »

I like gadgets. I like new toys. I love well-made products. I had always just assumed that when I became a father, I would have to deal with cheap plastic accouterments and boring baby products.

Boy was I wrong.

Most of the purchases I have left up to my *ahem* rather picky *cough* wife. This was, in part, to avoid stressing about the growing financial obligations required to take proper care of our yet-to-be born daughter. However, she recently expressed great concern over the appearance of our “travel combination” or some such nonsense. I managed to both console her and ignore the issue with great ease.

But then Ben, my brother, excitedly described a baby stroller he had purchased recently without the aid of his wife.

For those of you who know Ben, you might need to read that last sentence a few more times to let it sink in. It turns out that all strollers don’t have to look like they should be handled with care by an 80-year old grandmother. The one my wife had regrettably chosen (perhaps not the same model or colors, but you get the idea) is here:

Frankly, my daughter would probably cry in anguish sitting in that hideous contraption. And if the baby is sleeping, would I have to clear small twigs out of its path while I walk? Look at those terribly small plastic wheels! Unacceptable.

So what would make picky Meghan choose such a monstrosity for our precious daughter? She was afraid to ask her penny-pinching husband for superior travel machinery.

Ben, REI, and my loving parents to the rescue! I present to you the BOB:

Notice the large, decidedly-not-plastic wheels with shock absorbers. Notice the comfortable handle, swivel front wheel, fantastic shade cover, and easy folding system.

We may live in the ghetto, but my little daughter is going to cruise it in style.

Mark and I are never offered the opportunity to buy girl scout cookies. We are not yet among the circle of parents who have children of girl-scouting age, and we never live in neighborhoods that get solicited by our friendly neighborhood girl scouts. So every year I miss the opportunity to buy a box or two, in support of our local troop of course:)!

Well this year was no different, and the time to pre-order came and went. I thought we would have to endure another year without those delicious cookies. When to my extreme happiness, I saw some girl scouts who had set up a table in front of Best Buy 2 Saturdays ago! I quickly rushed over and bought 3 boxes of the Caramel De-lites (my favorite), 2 boxes of the Peanut Butter Patties (Mark’s favorite), and 4 boxes of the Thin Mints ( who doesn’t love those?) I know 9 boxes of cookies seems like alot, but girl scout cookie time comes but once a year! I figured we would make them last for awhile.

Now I know what you are thinking- No, GSC are not vegan, but Mark does make exceptions in special circumstances. I knew this would be one of those times:)

Now how long do you think 7 boxes of GSC should last 2 people? Certainly not the 8 days it took us to finish all but 2 boxes of our precious cookies. Mark is not the culprit in this case, although usually he is to blame in junk food disappearances. No, no. It is entirely MY fault. Or rather, Peantette’s fault.

I wake up in the middle of the night longing for a cold Thin Mint from the freezer. In my half-asleep trance, I stumble to the kitchen and eat a cookie. But when I awake in the morning, I am surprised to find that not one, but 5 cookies are missing! Did I eat them? I don’t remember. It’s not my fault, really!

So upon realizing that our stash is running low, Mark-like a good cookie addict, begins to get scared. What if we run out? Then what? We can’t wait until next year! We must find more cookies! He begs me to keep my eyes out for more little girls with cookies to sell.

Then this weekend-Jackpot! I made off with 10 more boxes. Which brings our grand total to 19 boxes of cookies.

For two people, and an unborn fetus.

It’s sad.

I’m ashamed of myself.

I think I’ll go eat away my sorrow with some yummy Caramel De-lites.

Yes, I am referring to me.

I am a planner. That’s what I do. I think about events and details long before they need to be planned. I already knew exactly what I wanted my wedding dress to look like, what colors I wanted for my wedding, what kind of ring I wanted, what flowers I wanted, how I would do my hair, etc., long before I ever met Mark. As a result-my engagement ring is the first one I tried on, my wedding dress was the first and only one I tried on, and it took me less than 3 months to plan a beautiful wedding. AND I have very few, if any regrets about the overall celebration. I’m sure if I had not thought about these things so far in advance, I would have made spur-of-the moment decisions that I would have later regretted.

So that is why I thought registering for things we need for the baby would be so fun and easy. I am fortunate enough to have both my mom and wonderful sister-in-law throwing me baby showers. Considering that we already have plenty of clothes and other baby things, it sounded like registering would be a good idea so that I could fill in the gaps of my Peanette supply.

I was wrong. It was not fun, and it was not easy.

I have very particular ideas of what I want, from years of imagining having a baby. Plus, I am very particular. I just am. I mean, it took me 5 years and 6 different stores to get our bedding for our master bedroom “just right”. I like things a certain way.

So when I tried to choose a stroller/car seat combination from the 10 different sets they offer at Babies’R'Us and the 5 they offer at Target, when not a single one is “just right”, I got very frustrated. Car seats are just ugly. I know they are not meant to be cute, they are meant to keep your baby safe, but COME ON! The nasty cream-colored plastic that looks dirty, and the plaid fabrics that are just hideous. Bleck! Admittedly, if I knew that all my babies would be girls I could go with one of the very girlie ones, but seeing as how our next baby could very well be a boy, and I don’t plan on investing another $200 in 2-3 years just so Peanette could have a cute pink infant seat now….Do you see my dilemma?

There is a Britax carseat I find less offensive, but it’s $200 for the car seat alone, and it doesn’t have a stroller that it fits. Whereas the Graco snugride is rated the safest on the market right now, and much cheaper, and comes in a variety of Travel System combinations(aka stroller AND carseat), all of which I think are ugly, but hey, beggers can’t be choosers right?

In addition to the carseat dilemma, the whole registering experience was just rough. There were so many things that I didn’t know if I would need, or what the features were best, or what was totally unnecessary. I kept finding myself thinking, “oh I’ll just wait til after the baby comes and see if I need this, then I can always buy it later”. But truth be told, we can’t afford to buy all this stuff later if we do end up needing it. I would rather everyone just get me gift cards, but no one wants to do that, and I understand that-what’s the fun in that? It was an exhausting experience. I think anything I want to add or change on my registry now, I’ll just do from the comfort of my home, sitting at my computer:)

Don’t even get me started on gliders/rockers. I really am the pickiest woman alive.