Oh... and if you ever want to be laughed at

try and call the airline and get them to add your "lap child" to a plane ticket. Before the kid is born.

Me: I'd like to add a lap child to my reservation
Agent Lady: Ok Ma'am, what is the child's last name?
Me: M***
AL: And the first name?
Me: Ummmm..... ummm... Baby?
AL: Your child is named Baby? Is it a boy or a girl?
Me: Well, its not here yet so I don't know, I'm due in 3 weeks-- but my ILs made the reservation and told me to take care of this ASAP
AL: :::Stifles a giggle::: OK Ma'am, you can take care of this later-- Good luck and congratulations.
Me: Thanks ::: hangs up mortified:::


Ah yes, I did this in my lab-- they will never let me live this phone call down.

Can someone tell the Tadpole it's time to come out now?

As I will attempt to show here, we are ready for the kiddo--- ok, as ready as we can naively be having never done this before. But still. The nursery is done. I got the house all cleaned and such. The guest room even has sheets and towels for my Mom. I even cleaned out the coat closet. Seriously, this is as clean as this house has ever been. Craig asked if this was finally "nesting" I nearly smacked him amidst the coat closet cleaning. Yes, me cleaning like this had better well be nesting cause the only other possible explanation is that I have been sniffing glue or something.

Here are some pictures of the completed nursery.

First up, the spiffy rocker and ottoman my Grammam got for us. (with random dragonflies on the wall and some curtains that I finally got washed and pressed (ok... not pressed, I don't iron, but I did toss them in the dryer and hang them promptly, so they are pretty well wrinkle free)) The toy box is from when I was little-- Dad got it all put back together and sturdier than ever, so in it went!

Here's the changing table thing and some more scenery on the wall . The plan is to put the Tadpole's name on the wall in the middle--- well, as soon as we figure out what the name will be! All the diaper supplies and onesies and sleep gown thingies are in the big baskets on the bottom too. So they are all put away. (well, the 0-3 month sizes that we got from the shower and the MOUNDS of clothing Shannon passed down to us-- the things that weren't very very girly or boy-ie. That stuff is all sorted into bins to be brought out as soon as we know if its a girl or a boy!)

Up next, the crib-- all assembled and with sheets and all that kinda good stuff. (and some more views of wall painting) Still undecided on the bumpers in or out thing. I have them in for now, and depending on my level of paranoia they will stay or go.

Last up in the nursery pictures-- the stocked closet-- see, the kiddo has TONS of clothes, and this is only the not pink/fireman stuff.... so there is EVEN MORE to add. And this is only the 0-3 month stuff... the Tadpole may never have to wear the same outfit twice! You can also see the second shelf Craig added for me and the second closet bar for more storage. The bins have toys, and socks and shoes in them. If you look just above the door, there is a little white circle thing on the wall... that's the baby monitor. It takes video (even in the dark!) and broadcasts it to the receiver thing so we can see the kiddo without having to go in... that should help with my paranoia and it met Craig's requirement for "cool gadgets".

Craig got the play pen and swing assembled this weekend and he is finally over his flu/strep/whatever-- so any time now that the Tadpole would like to show up would be dandy... in fact, the sooner the better. Today marks 39 weeks.... so its due, pretty well, NOW! Oh, and I got the carseat installed, so the kiddo has a way to get home safe and sound from the hospital too.

The playpen/bassinet/diaper changing station is downstairs in the living room (Yay for a super cheap clearance at target!!!), and the swing is pretty spiffy because it works on either batteries OR you can plug it in. So, no worries about the batteries dying in the middle of a nap or anything. (Plus, it has frogs on it, it was toooooooo cute to turn down)

So see, we're all ready for the Tadpole to get here, so if you could all just let them know-- telepathic waves, smoke signals, whatever you think will get the message through, please try! We want to meet our kiddo and show them off already!

I've already tried threats of grounding, bribes of not grounding, explaining how Murph really wants to lick the baby, explaining that they have TONS of toys and clothes and a neat-0 room waiting for them, bribes of shopping (claud's suggestion, in case its a girl), poking the kiddo, and explaining just how many people out here are excited to meet them... but so far to no avail. Ugh... still pregnant, oh well, at least we're all healthy and this is the big worry for us-- things really are very good.

Still Pregnant..

I'm still here, everythings good. Still pregnant. 38 weeks and 1 day today. ugh.


I owe everyone pictures from the shower and of the nursery now that its all put together, but my motivation has been seriously lacking. I am chugging through work right now to make sure I leave everything organized and planned for while I am away and by the time I get home I just want to sleep. Of course, that's not really happening either these days-- so I am entering walking zombie mode.

Oh well, things are good overall. Tadpole is growing and kicking and all those things it should be doing. And that's what matters!

As of 2 fridays ago, I was told by the doc to "not expect a 9 lb baby" (haha... oh darn, I thought that 9+lbs of baby coming out of 5 foot tall me would be a good thing.... and yeah, I was expecting to give birth to Shaq so now I am kinda dissapointed--- not sure why they all feel it necessary to warn me on that one) but that he was pretty sure I would "go early" and that if I did make it all the way to 40 weeks the Tadpole "might" be 7lbs max. (I wish I could have gotten that early guarantee in writing, or that someone could explain to the Tadpole that they should come early... either way!)

At last Friday's appointment, the nurse-midwife again warned me that we're getting a "small baby"-- by which she meant 6ish lbs. And then dashed all my hopes by explaining that the 24 hours of 6-8 minutes contractions I'd been having, well... they had accomplished much of nothing. I was 50% effaced, "fingertip" dilated and the kiddo is at a -2. So, not too much considering they'd kept me up all night. She also commented that I was going to be "skinny" when the kiddo got here-- I guess based on my only having gained ~8lbs since the beginning-- but the thought of referring to me as "skinny" is pretty darn funny.

It turned out alright that up through then no real progress because Craig managed to catch a nasty bug that laid him out most of last week and into this week. Thankfully, I managed to avoid it so far and I am keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way.

The whole contractions thing is getting to driving me bonkers... its been pretty much non-stop every 10-15 minutes since last Thursday and while they are not awful, they are distractingly uncomfortable and occasionally worse. So for now I am hoping that one more week of them will have accomplished something by the time I have my appointment on Friday. Or that the Tadpole will be here by then... that would be just dandy too.

Until Friday (or Tadpole's birthday) I am just hoping to wrap up some loose ends at work and praying that I'll get a reasonable nights sleep undisturbed by contractions before the kiddo gets here.

Stay tuned for baby news.... I'll keep you all posted.

oops!

Craig tells me I posted the "behind the scenes" instead of the ACTUAL music video. So just to make sure everyone is able to fully appreciate how cool it is. Here is the full song!





And the lyrics!

The PCR Song by Scientists for Better PCR

There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.
(Oooh) Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.

Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases too.
Denaturing, annealing, and extending,
Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.

[Chorus]
PCR when you need to detect mutation (detect mutation)
PCR when you need to recombine (recombine)
PCR when you need to find out who the daddy is (who’s your daddy?)
PCR when you need to solve a crime (solve a crime)
[x2]