I am Quite ready to be done with this pregnancy. Actually I don't think it's going to be much longer. Just hope it isn't Saturday, since that is the last wedding Ken booked until November, when he booked it last winter it seemed like it was in the safe zone.

Anyway at my weekly appt. my BP was up. This is what happened at the end with Alex too. The week before it was borderline high, then they send me to L&D to get a series reading where it ends up being normal again. Same thing happened today. So I spent almost two hours over in L&D this morning so they can monitor us. The baby does not like being monitored. He either kicks at the band around my belly or turns away so it's hard to get his heart rate. He was giving the nurse a hell of a time. I am having contractions but nothing regular, I've been put on partial bedrest. Basically I was told to rest, relax and drink lots of fluids. Once I got home I had to call work and tell them I wouldn't be in for my Sunday and Monday shifts. They were to be my last ones anyway before starting mat leave.

I Got home made my calls took Alex to the grocery store since we missed playgroup this morning. I was actually pretty upset about that. I figured this was the last one we'd go to for a few weeks and I wanted him to have a chance to play with his friends. My appt was at 8:45 so I figured I'd be home by 9:30 latest, so we could go at 10:30 to playgroup. That obviously didn't happen.

We have cable internet once more. Now if only I could get my computer up and running. I almost did. It was funny right after I got off the phone talking to the tech to set up an appointment for them to come out windows booted up and I reloaded all my newer software. Unfortunately it didn't last the next morning it acted like it had for the previous 3 days. Ahh well.

So I'm hoping Ken's birthday present comes in today or tomorrow. Then I need to pick up an ice cream cake. I think we're going the traditional Carvel on this year instead of Cold stone. (I had an ice cream cake for my shower and he really enjoyed the piece I brought home for him.) Other than the wedding we'll spend the next few days putting the nursery back together now that the floor is finished.

So I post last night about everything but about how yesterday went. Alex woke up in a much better mood. He came into my room at about twenty of seven with a cheery "Hi Mommy" Then began chattering away. I was actually feeling a bit better myself not as congested. I did notice through the course of the day that Alex's energy waned pretty quickly. He'd play for 15 minutes or so then go sit in his chair or lay on the floor for a half hour. He did actually start taking liquids again yesterday and ate a tiny bit.

I did well most of the morning then I started getting lower back aches every 45 minutes to an a hour. Which was joined by an almost but not quite queasy feeling. Drinking water and laying down helped a little but not much. This lasted until about 5pm.

Ken has the worst luck when he goes up to pick his parents in Brooklyn. This time he got a flat tire on the Jersey Turnpike. He's in a brand new car with brand new tires. After putting the donut on he got to a service station to see if they could repair the tire. It was a no go, too much damage. A large piece of metal was what caused the initial damage. They didn't have any Michelins so he waited until he got home to get a new tire. That didn't go so smoothly either because to match the other tires they had to send to another store to get what he needed. So by the time we got to VA for MIL's birthday dinner we were 40 minutes late.

Ale was surprisingly good at dinner. I think he was a bit delirious. He was definately entertaining. Everyone got a good chuckle out of watching him try and use chopsticks (4 of them at once) So we got home about 9:30 and even though Alex slept in the car the day was a bit much for him. That combined with a the gunk draining down his throat, he started to throw up as we got him ready for bed. Luckily we got him to the bathroom before anything actually came out. He got a quick bath then passed out in bed soon after.

Today the boys went up to PA to ride the rails with Thomas. Ken said that when Alex saw the trains he got this huge, shocked looking grin on his face. But all the boys enjoyed their day. He also said that when he went to get T-shirts for Alex, the boy almost stripped right there so he could wear it.:hehe:

Quiet day at work for me today but a lot of customers asking how soon. I must look ready or something. No contractions today but baby boy was kicking up a storm.

So this afternoon we all kinda crash in various stages on the couch and finish my vanilla bean frappichino. After dinner, which was left over dim sum that was supposed to be lunch yesterday, Alex went back to watch the end of Mulan (again) within ten minutes he was falling asleep. So I got Ken to carry him up to bed. He didn't even protest as I changed his diapers and got him into his PJ's. At the end I turned on the Oceans of Wonder thing said "Good night I love you sweet dreams." like I always do gave him a kiss then added, "dream about riding the rails with Thomas." He got this beautiful sleepy smile on his face as he closed his eyes. It was just so sweet. I kissed him one more time before leaving the room.

Now I just have to get my computer functioning again, it didn't like the network with DSL so we were trying to just start from scratch and reload drivers for the wireless router. For some reason my computer didn't like this. So I tried rebooting several times in both normal and safe mode and just got a black screen. Finally I gave up and tried system recovery, this didn't work either because it went through the whole recovery sequence, then you're supposed to shut down and reboot for everything to take effect. Still got the black screen.(this all started friday night) Ken took the whole thing apart last night after we got home and made sure there was no dust or anything.

I tried again tonight to get booted to this time it starts to load windows but freezes before it gets to the desktop. So some improvement. Guess I call a tech tomorrow. We're just doing really bad where technology is concerned this month.

We got DSL working but it's not working with out network so only Ken's computer has the high speed. Which is what needed to really be on the highspeed since we have a bunch of album and print orders come in, in the last two weeks. That combined with some other hassles means if cable is up and working Monday, the 30 day trial of DSL will be it.

Let's see Sunday both Alex and I came down with what ever this crap is that's going around. And almost immediately the "helpless when sick" gene on the Y chromosome kicked in. So not only am I stuffy, hacking and had no sleep (both pregnancy and cold related) I have to deal with mister whiney,cranky, refusing to take even tylenol or eat. Ken stayed home today when I lost it this morning at 6am and Alex was whining and I was frustrated because I couldn't understand a word he was saying.

I think he saw it coming when he got home Wednesday and I even though I looked like shit (going on maybe three hour sleep that day) I told him I was going to the grocery store and he could deal with the boy.

So even though I seem to be measureing ahead. And every one who looks at me says I won't make it until the 17th. The U/S today showed the baby measuring right on schedule maybe a couple days ahead which is nothing. They are estimating that he's about 6lbs 10oz at this point, so he's already bigger than Alex was when he was born. Alex came on his due date. He's still only 50 percentile in tems of size. The tech said it could be a pound either way but she expects this baby to be mid 7's when born.

Thursday was probably the one really good day all week. Alex enjoyed getting to play with all this friends and I got ice cream cake at my baby shower. They got us one of these

Alex wants to play with it already. He wanted us to put it together as soon as we got home.a bumbo, a bunch of long sleeve onsies, a sleep sack, little bath items like baby wash, lotions and wipes and the baby einstein fabric color blocks.

Ken finally almost has the floor in the nursery done. He'll finish it Tuesday since this weekend will be a wash for him. He has to go up to Brooklyn to pick up his parents, then we have the birthday dinner for his mom and Sunday he's taking Alex to ride on Thomas the Tank Engine up in Stausburg PA.

From Last Friday::

Today was an interesting day. Mostly good. I started the day with my spa appointment. A much needed facial and manicure. Came home in time for lunch and Ken went out to run errands and meet with the guy he's been picking up extra weddings from.

Looks like next year Ken has to put his photography business on a back burner. He has a lot of travel for his job at APG. At least one trip a month possibly starting as soon as January. So for the next year he's not going advertise like he usually does but will book referrals. Mostly because with travel he won't have time to do post process stuff on a regular basis. In order to make up the income he'll pick up a couple weddings a month from this guy. Looks like I may also be able to pick up some design work from him as well, which would be cool.

The only bad thing is we still have no highspeed. The tech came out, by the time he left after testing all the phone lines in the house, he said he was going to test the signal at the main junction. If he gets a signal it means there is a problem with the phone lines themselves, so Verizon will have to fix that. If the signal was still very weak, it means the provider needs to boost the signal. So either way we're still stuck.

In the mean time my new scanner showed up. So now I can start scanning my negatives. Ken got the hotsling I wanted off ebay so that should be arriving soon. The only other annoying thing I had several strong contractions luckily they went away after a glass of water and lying down for a half hour. You know I said I wanted the kid to show up early but not this early. Ken was thinking the other day it's not out of the realm of possibilities that the baby would arrive on the 27th. Which would be kind of funny our anniversary is April 27, Alex's birthday is January 27th, guess that number keeps popping up.

So I've started on the weekly plan of drs visits as of next week. And even though I'm holding pretty steady on weight gain, fluctuating between 21-23 lbs gained, I'm measuring 38 weeks at this point. So I get to go in for another u/s to check the baby's size end of next week. The midwife said that at this point if my contractions become regular they won't stop them. The ones I described to her sounded like real contractions not BH. But since I haven't had more than 2-3 a day I don't think Buddah boy is quiet ready to come out. This is fine by me, like I said he needs to wait two more weeks. Though Ken is now convinced the baby is gonna show up on his birthday, Oct 4th. Of course now that we're getting ready for him to show up early he'll be late.

Not much going on here this week. I do get my spa day Friday and next week the playgroup ladies are having a baby shower for me. That'll be nice, the food is always good and there are no games because we have too many kids running around. Next weekend is my MIL's birthday dinner and Ken will take Alex to Ride the rails with Thomas up in Stausburg PA. Of course since I work that day I won't get to enjoy my child free day.

Still on dial up at this point. A tech is suppose to come by Friday to figure out why DSL isn't working. And Comcast has started digging to lay the new lines in our court. So week three of internet hell for me ah well hopefully by the weekend we'll be back to where we need to be.

OKay so I'm really posting again in my journal. Still on dial up, looks like comcast probably isn't going to do anything until the new lines are laid. Though we did call them again since we were told this would be fixed with in 10 days, yesterday was 10 days from when the tech came out. They're sending someone else out again Tuesday (so two weeks from the last time we had a tech out.) This whole thing is really a pain because it interferes with us placing any print orders for customer albums, or just orders. We don't have the band width to upload large files in a reasonable amount of time. Hell it's taken me a week to get a quarter of all the pictures Ken took at my maternity shoot into my smugmug gallery.

We contacted our other account about getting DSL. The modem arrived yesterday. So we get it hooked up and realize we need to get it reprogramed in order to get it to serve as a bridge to our wireless network instead of a router for a single computer. In order to do that we had to hook it up to my computer alone with out the network because the closest phone to Ken's computer has a double line with both his business line as well as the home line running on it. Come to find out the modem isn't detecting DSL on our phoneline at all. We've obviously pissed off the broadband Gods somewhere along the line.

Anyway It dawned on me today that I have just over a month before this baby arrives. Some days it scares the hell out of me. We have nothing ready. I actually finally washed both possible coming home outfits this afternoon. But the nursery still has no floor. I worry about how Alex will be with the baby. I think he senses it's soon. One minute he's super clingy, the next he's moody and whiney. I also worry about how much time I'll have for him once the baby is here. I know in the end I'll do what I always do, just go with the flow and some days will be horrible and others very smooth. And in between will be days of mind numbing boring routine, with small magic moments.I'm hoping this kid will stay put at least another couple weeks but anytime after the 26th, well except the 4th he's allowed to arrive.

Yesterday was a rather uncomfortable morning. My BH contrax up until this point have just felt like my entire belly tightening up. Not painful but uncomfortable a couple times a day. Every hour or so in the morning I was getting a crampy feeling that wrapped around to my back didn't seem to matter what I was doing. Then at lunch time they stopped. Today nothing, I'll mention it at my appointment Monday. They baby has dropped as well. Until today when ever he started rolling I felt it near my belly button. Today I could feel his shoulders right above my pelvic bone, talk about uncomfortable.

Ken took Alex down to the city today to visit a train store. The boys were in electric train heaven. As soon as they got home Ken had to set up a small version of his track that's been in storage downstairs since we moved. We learned that Alex is not ready for electric trains, he doesn't understand the 'no touch' part of it yet.

My mom, sister and Niece are at my cousin's wedding today. I really wish I could be there. When I talked to my mom Thursday she said both Bonnie (my aunt) and Jason (my cousin) understood, the baby is more important though they will miss me. Mom said she'd make sure Jessica took lots of pictures for me to play with.

What do you do with a 2 1/2 year old with a flare for the over dramatic? The boy will never win an oscar if he keeps this up. Yesterday morning was particularly bad. Ken had gone upstairs to finish the painting and even out the floor so he could lay the laminate. I needed a shower so I asked Alex what he wanted to watch he said Blue so I put the DVD in that usually gives me at least a half hour to wash my face, brush my teeth and shower. I told him where I would be and started to head up. He decided he wanted his backpack, so I got it and helped him put it on, and continued on my way. Well he decided to follow me. I stopped to talk to Ken and let him know too. I heard Alex start sobbing, he was three steps from the bottom, his backpack on the floor. "Backpack fell, can't reach it, can't reach it, Backpack!!!" I'm asking him to calm down, and tell him to go down the three steps and get the backpack so I can help him put it on. After saying the exact same thing several times it seems to sink in and he does what I ask. I help him put it on and head to the masterbath. He follows me and it slides of once more, whining and tears commence. I help him a second time but this time I tighten the straps so it won't fall off so easy. He runs off and I get in the shower. Ten minues later,he's in in the bathroom again crying like a limb has been torn off. I pull back the curtain, head full of shampoo, expecting to see I don't know what because he really sounds like he's in pain. He's just standing there tears streaming down his face, nothing apparently wrong. I try talking him back to calm, at least enough so I can figure out what he's crying about. I get little bits and peices and and assume it's about his backpack because he no longer has it on. I ask him if he can reach it where he dropped it. That seems to take him down to sniffles and he runs off. A minute later he's back with his backpack and I've rinsed the shampoo from my hair. I help him again and he runs off. I take the rest of my shower in peace.

I find out later that he'd been in the nursery with Ken and had decided to tap on the window with a pair of pliers. Ken asked him to stop, he did the dear in headlights freeze. And dropped the pliers almost down the open heating vent. So Ken yells trying to catch it before it falls down, luckily it falls cock-eyed. This is what sent Alex off in crying to me. But there have been a lot of incidents similar to this. Whenever he drops somthing or can't find something right away he starts panicky crying. Even earlier that morning he couldn't find his juice cup and started to panic. I asked him where he usually puts it, then I say "Is it in your thinking chair?" He jumps off the couch and runs over to his chair low and behold, there's his juice cup, he's all smiles. How do I get him to slow down and think about where things might be, before an automatic burst into tears? This is driving me nuts. I keep having to talk him down before I can even ask questions or give leads on where to look. Because I'm not going to keep track of his stuff his entire life, I can barely keep track of mine.

Other than that this has been the week from hell. The first four days no internet, still no high speed. I have a feeling even though Comcast told us 7-10 days (I'm assuming from Tuesday when the tech was here) before maintenence comes to tweek the node. That that's not going to happen because they're replacing cable in our development, my guess is they think about it once they're done with that, which could be who knows when. Anyway we've contacted earthlink, which we still have an account with because that's where Ken has part of his website hosted. We upgraded to DSL with them so as soon as the modem gets here we should be back up to speed, for a thirty day trial. If Comcast doesn't fix this by next Friday we're canceling.

Of course last night we lost power for a good hour then off and on the rest of the night. It went out while Alex was watching Monsters Inc. DO you know how hard it is to explain to a two year old that I can't fix the TV because there is no power. Luckily it was close to his bed time and after 10 minutes he gave up and decided he wanted to go to bed. I read a couple stories by flashlight. The power had gone out while Ken had made a run to Lowe's so when he got back he found a light stick for us to leave with Alex, lit candles downstairs so we could save battery power in the flashlights. We lost power for about a half hour this morning as well. Luckily it was easier to distract Alex during daylight.

Last weekend was a festival for italian foods in Baltimore. I didn't go but, lots of stuff was in the Sun this week about it. This of course got me thinking about things my grandmother used to make namely pizzelles and fried dough. The pizzelle we got at BJs Thursday night. I called my dad to find out how my grandmother made the fried dough. He got back to me yesterday so I made it this morning. Big mistake. I spent most of the day in pain from the huge gas bubble under my ribs, I think maybe it was the yeast in the bread dough, who knows. About quarter of 4:00 the mylanta I took finally worked. Good thing Ken's wedding was a late one so he was around to help with Alex and by the time he left Alex was napping. I was almost back to normal by the time he woke at quarter of 5:00. I hope next week goes better.