Monday, September 29, 2008

Introducing...

Ava Marie Rodriguez


Born September 26 at 6:47 PM.

7 lbs., 1.6 oz.

19 1/2 inches long




Saturday, September 27, 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Must See TV

It's Thursday and that means the season premiere of The Office!!! I can't wait.

I will also be DVR'ing Grey's Anatomy but I do not subject Fredo to that.

Which reminds me, I need to check our DVR and make sure all of my stories are going to be recorded in case I go into labor during The Hills or something.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Pregnancy Update

Yup, still pregnant. Tomorrow is my actual due date.

Since finding out I was pregnant, I always assumed the baby would be late. I was late and first babies in general usually are. But a couple of weeks ago I went to my doctor who said I was 2 cm dilated already and wouldn't be surprised if I didn't make it to my next appointment. Well, I did and to another one after that. I blame him for making me so antsy.

I had an appointment yesterday and with my due date rapidly approaching, the doctor scheduled my induction, just in case. If Peanut doesn't come on out on her own, we're inducing labor October 1. I will definitely have a kid in a week, if not sooner.

We also went ahead and scheduled a non stress test for Friday morning with a follow up appointment with my doctor on Monday.

I had some pretty intense contractions about 2 weeks ago and then nothing since so we'll see how this all shakes out.

I hope she comes out soon because I'm getting a little tired of watching daytime television. Today I caught myself watching Martha Stewart and Maury. Yikes! Although this sleeping in thing is working out nicely for me.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Crazy Neighbors

No baby yet so to pass the time, I'm scaring the neighbors.

Our neighbors are weird. I haven't really met them so I'm speculating here but I think there are weird for two reasons.

One, they have a diamond shaped window in their door and obviously don't want people (us) seeing inside. Ok, that doesn't make them so weird. I wouldn't want people looking into my apartment from the porch either. What is weird is how they deter people from looking into their apartment. They have a drawing (not a very good one either) of a man and a woman holding hands that has been taped up in the window. What wasn't taken into consideration when drafting this masterpiece was that the window is a diamond, not a square so the picture is on it's side. (I wondered if I could sneak downstairs and take a picture to post here but didn't want to get caught but take my word for it, it's just bizarre).

Two, the woman is afraid of dogs... all dogs... including my 9 lb. chihuahua/mini pincer mix. She is, apparently, terrified of dogs. She had told my husband this one day when she ran into him walking our dog. This morning, I got my taste of the crazy. I was coming back from walking our dog and was about to open the door to our apartment. Cora was sitting on the porch, waiting to get upstairs when she heard the neighbors door about to open. Now, Cora is a very friendly dog and always wants to say hi. I had our door open and was trying to get Cora inside but the dog was distracted. The woman opened the dog, obviously saw Cora standing in front of her door, screamed and slammed the door. I had to get Cora inside quickly before I burst out laughing on our porch.

Maybe this is mean of me, but it was damn funny.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Happy Birthday to My First Born

No, not the baby. Happy birthday to our fur baby, Cora!

Cora is 3 today (we think). We got Cora on 12/31/2005 and were told she was 10 weeks old and was born on 9/19. Awhile later, we realized that just did not add up. No matter, we still celebrate 9/19 as the dog's birthday.

Enjoy your special bone today Cora!


Cora's first experience with peanut butter on the day we got her.
(Some one figured out how to add pictures..which is ridiculously easy... don't laugh)


Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ch-Ch-Cha-Changes

I've made some changes to the background and colors but I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. I guess I'll just continue to play around on Blogger and see what I can come up with.

In the meantime, I'm 39 weeks pregnant today and 2 cm dialated. Let's hope this baby comes sooner rather than later. I'm getting tired of being so pregnant.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Same Old, Same Old

I haven't been doing much besides waiting for the baby to make an appearance.

The weekend was a bust, thanks to the never ending rain. Instead of going to the craft fair, we ran around the apartment with buckets, bowls and watering cans to catch the leaks that seemed to multiply in the ceiling (oh and to catch the falling plaster from where our ceiling looks like it's caving in). With the help of my mom and her fiance, we also checked the entire apartment for evidence of mice since my landlord has still not sent an exterminator (or returned our phone calls about it). We patched a lot of holes and vacuumed up a lot of mouse poop.

Yesterday was supposed to be spent cleaning the apartment but instead I cleaned our bedroom and then sat down on the couch--and fell asleep for about 2 hours with CNBC in the background. I had some pretty weird dreams involving Lehmann Brothers.

I got a bikini wax and then had a dr. appt. so I've spent a lot of time with my pants off today. Otherwise, nothing much is happening.

Hopefully, there will be a more inspired post tomorrow.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Last Day

Today is my last full day of work and it has the potential to be one of the most boring days ever.

All of my work is done and my "replacements" have already taken over my daily tasks. I basically showed up to work today to read blogs. Unless something is assigned to me, I'm going to be spending the day counting the hours until 5 pm. I wish I could have just stayed home today but since my last day is officially tomorrow, that didn't seem like an option. Tomorrow will be more of the same but I'll only have to kill time until 10 am.

Since today is going to be a bust, let me talk about my weekend plans.

I will be hauling my 38 weeks pregnant self down to my old neighborhood to go to The Renegade Craft Fair. Fredo and I went last year and picked up a few things (his favorite T-shirt that commands people to "Make Me A Sandwich" and a paining of a Chicago El sign). I remember commenting last year that it would be a great place to buy baby stuff, if we were expecting a baby. How prescient of me.

Growing up in Connecticut, my mother and I used to go to craft fairs a lot. There was a big one we would attend every year in a town called Guilford. I told her that this craft fair is kind of like the Guilford Craft Fair if that fair was run by hipsters.

I don't really need to buy anything there. The baby's room will be done when we get some art back from the framers. It will be fun to wander around and check out all of the stuff for sale. I'm sure I won't leave empty handed though.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Things to Do

As my maternity leave draws closer, I have quite the list shaping up of things to get done. I'm trying to keep myself busy so that the time before my due date flies by (although if Peanut is late, as I'm sure she will be, I will probably start to go crazy). Here's the list of things I plan on doing before baby.

-Clean. I'm hoping the nesting instinct will kick in next week and inspire me to clean the apartment top to bottom. This includes cleaning out closets and taking stuff to Goodwill.
-Organize our wedding album. We have been married a year and not a single picture has made it into our wedding album.
-A little bit of pampering--Prenatal massages (oh that right, plural. One at the chiropractor and one at an actual spa), hair cut and color, facial and manicure/pedicure... because who knows when the next time I will be able to do that will be.
-Stocking up on things we need so Fredo will have to make less trips to the store post baby.
-Meeting the pediatrician
-Finally balancing my checkbook.. honestly, it's been months so this could turn into an all day project.
-Napping

I can't wait!

Monday, September 8, 2008

I Hate Mieces to Pieces

My last week of work started out pretty hectic. I woke up late and rushed around to get ready so I wouldn't be ridiculously late to the office. Fredo took Cora outside for her morning walk and I went about making my lunch. I headed to the trash can to throw something out... and found a dead mouse on our kitchen floor. There's nothing like making a soon to be first time mom feel better about the safe home she is providing her baby than finding a dead rodent.

Backing up a bit, we found out soon after moving to our apartment that there had been, at one time, a rodent infestation. My landlord has an exterminator to come once a month but he doesn't have a key so he can't get into the apartment unless someone is home. Fredo works from home and is usually there to let him in, so I figured we were good. Our apartment is in an old building and there are plenty of places for mice to get in, so really having mice is not all that surprising, however, our apartment is clean and with the monthly exterminator visits, I wasn't terribly worried.

Until Sat. morning...

I had made banana bread last week and left it on our counter, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. I planned on having the last of it Saturday morning and went about unwrapping my banana bread, excited about my breakfast. I took the plastic wrap off and noticed 3 round chunks missing from the bread. I asked Fredo if he had ripped chunks out of the loaf and he said no, while looking at me as if I were crazy. So great, evidence of possible rodent activity. We started hunting around with a flashlight and sure enough, found droppings in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. We knew we needed to call the exterminator to come out, but decided to wait until today anyway since we didn't actually see a mouse.

It has become a more urgent situation now, of course, and hopefully we'll have an exterminator out sooner rather than later.

It's always something with this apartment. If moving weren't damn near impossible right now, I would probably be seriously considering it. In the mean time, we'll make the best of it... which means complaining to our building manager, maintenance and landlord as often as it takes to get something done.

For now, let's hope for no more mice!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Vices

I don't really have too many vices remaining. I used to smoke and I used to drink but I've stopped both (although the abstaining from alcohol is temporary). My one remaining vice? Gossip magazines.

I do have to say, my consumption of gossip rags has gone down considerably from a few years ago. Back then, I worked in bars and worked late into the night. I could never just come home from work at 2:30 am and go right to sleep. In order to wind down from the night, I would read gossip magazines. I would read Us, People (almost like a real magazine!), In Touch and even Star. I would buy all my magazines on Fridays and it was always such a treat to go home after a long night of waitressing or bar tending and read my magazines.

After buying these magazines every week I decided it would be more economical to subscribe to them. So subscribe I did--yes, even to Star. (Life and Style was not around back then but if it was, you can bet I would have gotten that one too).

When I got a day job and my subscriptions ran out, I did not renew Star and In Touch. I will sometimes still buy In Touch and Life and Style (but not Star... I've developed some standards). I still get US Weekly and People in the mail. I get so excited when those magazines arrive in my mail box on Thursdays or Fridays.

As long as I'm pointing out my vices, I will also point out my magazine compulsions. I always read US first and save People. I get really angry if someone reads my magazine before I do. Sometimes Fredo will pick up my copy if I get up while reading it and leave it open. God help him when he does this because I get pretty salty. If someone other than Fredo were to pick up my magazine, I would keep calm but instead I would be grumpy and mentally willing them to put it down.

The work day is almost done and I so looking forward to getting home. I have fresh copies of US Weekly and People waiting for me at home and I can't wait to curl up on the couch to learn about Sarah Palin as only US Weekly and People can teach me.

Happy weekend!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Great Moments in Fredo and Bailey History

Moment #1: How I told Fredo I was Pregnant

To clarify, I didn't really tell Fredo I was pregnant. I told him I suspected I may be and then he was pretty close by while I peed on a stick to confirm my suspicions.

One night (January 23rd to be precise), Fredo and I went out to dinner prior to going to an art gallery event. We arrived at the bar/restaurant near the gallery, sat down and I ordered a Blue Moon. I ordinarily love Blue Moon and will order it year round. For some reason though, that night the Blue Moon just tasted off. I drank maybe half of my beer (which should have tipped Fredo off that something was up since I hardly ever leave a "wounded soldier") and then stopped in the bathroom on my way out because I felt somewhat nauseous. I shrugged it off that maybe I just wasn't in the mood for beer that night.

I think, while at dinner, I mentioned that there was the possibility of me being pregnant because it had been a few days since I was supposed to get my period but it was only a few days late and maybe that month it got stuck in traffic or something.

On to the gallery we went. Once there, I got a glass of champagne and began to sip it and still... something was different. I couldn't finish the glass. I just didn't want it. It was then that I told Fredo we should stop on the way home for a pregnancy test. We got the hell out of there soon after because, well, now that we were suspicious we wanted to know now.

We stopped at CVS and made one of the more hilarious purchases I have ever made at a drugstore--a multi pack of home pregnancy tests and a bottle of Jim Bean.

When we got home, I immediately ran into the bathroom and took the test. Fredo immediately mixed a drink. I think the test said to wait 2-5 minutes (I can't remember what the actual amount was) but 2 lines showed up pretty much instantaneously. Fredo took a look at the first test and told me to wait a few minutes and take another one. I did and the results were the same. I was pregnant!

Fredo still wanted to hear it from the doctor before we got all crazy and started making all of these baby plans. We went to the doctor the following week and the results were confirmed. Three days or so after going to the doctor, we headed to an all inclusive resort in Mexico for our belated honeymoon--I booked an inclusive resort on purpose but couldn't drink while we were there. Oh well, we'll go back and I'll tie one on.

Here were are almost nine months later and the day that seemed so far away back in January is rapidly approaching. There have been several memorable moments since then--seeing the first ultrasound (which earned the baby the nickname of "Peanut") and finding out it was a girl, but none of those would have happened without that one night in January (well, that other night kind of made this all possible, but I won't go into details about that).

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

6 1/2 Days

Yes that's right. I'm now counting down to maternity leave in half days.

I had my weekly check up yesterday and got a nice little surprise on my way out. I stopped at the front like usual to make next weeks appointment and was told my doctor has no availability next week until Friday. And he's only in the office on Friday mornings until 11 am so the latest I could get in to see the doctor is 10:45 am. Which means on my last day before maternity leave, I will only end up working from 7:30 am until about 10:15 am. Oh damn...

I was planning on leaving work early next Friday anyway since Fridays are usually pretty slow anyway and my concentration will be nil. This gives me the perfect excuse to get out even earlier than I had planned.

I'm pretty pleased with this latest development. I'm just about ready to go anyway. There's a few things to finish up at work but if need be, I could have them done by the end of the week.

So counting down.. 6 1/2 more days. With everything thats going on, they should fly right by.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Labor Day

We had a very nice long weekend. When I made the arrangements for Cincinnati, I forgot it was Labor Day weekend. It was nice to go out of town, come back and still have a day off before starting my second to last work week before maternity leave.

Some highlights from the weekend:
- We missed out on seeing a car chase on Saturday but did see the aftermath which included 5 police officers, multiple cop cars, a minivan with all of it's doors open and 5 people sitting on the side of the highway outside of Indianapolis in hand cuffs.
-The Cincinnati Westin. Westin's have the most comfortable beds ever and this one was no exception. For the low, low price of $3200 you too could own your very own Westin approved mattress and bed linens set.
-Graeter's ice cream. So, so good!
-The Reds/Giants game. There was a near fight between people in the rows behind us but it never came to blows. The worst it got was when one woman pointed at the man they were arguing with and told him, "Don't be an idiot!". It's a nice ballpark and I got to see Aaron Rowand (current Giant, former White Sox) hit a home run.
-Sunday we stopped in Indianapolis for lunch and to see the new Colts stadium.
-Monday we went to my mother's for dinner. Both she and her fiance are great cooks and the meal was delicious. Lucky for me, she sent me home with the leftover mixed berry cobbler.
-I didn't have to go to triage! I was having some contractions last night and called the doctor. Fredo was freaking out. Thank goodness for beer or else he would have really been in a panic. I may have to keep him in a constant state of inebriation for the next few weeks to keep him calm. Luckily, the contractions calmed down and I didn't have enough in an hour to go to the hospital. While that would have given new meaning to Labor Day, I'm glad peanut didn't make her debut last night.

Hope everyone had a wonderful long labor day weekend!