Only 8 weeks left...

Only 8 or so more weeks to go before little Sydney joins us!  It seemed like it has been this far off thing that would seem to take forever to get her, but here we are...almost there!

Malia has been feeling pretty good this last week, although she is starting to have trouble sleeping now.  She has to get up to use the bathroom several times a night now.  It seems as though she likes to tap dance on her Mom's bladder...little turd :) 

So true...

Sydney has been getting the hiccups a lot lately; getting that diaphragm nice and strong for that first breath.  We had a very minor freak out the first few times that we felt her doing it...we had no idea that it was the hiccups.  Naturally, our thoughts went to the worst imaginable scenarios...our kid had nervous tics or something else equally terrible. Well, all I can say is thank god for Google.  One quick search and our fears of having a handicapped child were abated.

Our next doctors appointment is on Thursday at the Womens Center where we'll be delivering.  We have reached the stage where our OB doc wants to see us ever two weeks now instead of every month, so there's no question that we are getting closer to the end!

 Its finally starting to warm up here...we even cracked 70 degrees last Friday, a literal heat wave.  We started taking the dogs down to the lake that we live close to to get our handi-capable Jax some much needed swimming exercise on his knee.  We found a nice little beachy spot that is secluded enough that we can let the dogs run loose and retrieve sticks and stuff.  I really like that we can walk down there from the house in less than 10 minutes.  I'm going to join them in the water once it warms up a little   Jax went bananas today, as usual, trying to chase a duck.  He almost got out to the middle of the lake today trying to get it.  He was really committed, you could see him literally pulling himself out of the water he was swimming so hard.  Such a special little guy...

F you pollen!

The warm weather has sent all the plant life into freaking pollen overdrive.  I've got pretty bad seasonal allergies, but this year is ridiculous...its almost debilitating its so bad this year.  I've even resorted to using a neti pot to try and help alleviate the symptoms.  Boy, what a weird sensation that thing is.  If you're not familiar with the neti, you basically pour warm saltwater up your nose and throughout your sinuses to flush everything out.  Yep, you heard me right.  You pour saltwater right into your face...and yes, it feels as weird as you think it would.  Its helping a little though, I think.

Mowing the grass has become quite the chore now.  I have to suit up in long sleeves, pants, dust mask and goggles to keep from going into anaphylactic shock.  I think I'm better protected than most guys working with the damn Ebola virus.  Just the other day, I had the bright idea that if I took a benadryl before I went out to mow, then I wouldn't be bothered as badly...  I found out why they put those warning labels on the side...you know, the ones that say something to the tune of "Don't operate heavy machinery".  Now, I know you're all thinking: "Zack, lawn mowers aren't really considered heavy machinery.  Its more like hefty machinery"  Trust me, I'm with ya on that one but I had one helluva time finishing the front yard.  It was all I could do to will my legs forward.  The bad thing was that it didn't really even help that much...

Cereal Nazi!

Well, we’ve had quite the week with 3 different doctor’s appointments.  Two were for the gestational diabeetus and the other was just our normal monthly visit to see our OB doc.  Speaking of which, we’re now at the stage where we need to go see him every two weeks instead of the every month schedule that we had before.  All the more evidence that she’ll soon be here!  Also on that note, our doc updated our due date back to July 12^th now.  So mark yer calendar!

The doctor’s appointments went well.  The first was with a dietician who went over Malia’s food intake and blood sugar levels for the past couple of weeks.  She is doing really well!  The dietician was pretty surprised to see that Malia had been getting away with eating some of the stuff that she had been.  The second one with the diabeetus nurse was not as fun.  She kept harping on Malia about how eating cereal was “probably the worst thing you could be eating right now…”  Blah blah, whatever.  Her blood sugar is doing just fine eating that cereal, so I don’t see what the big deal is.  All I could think about as the nurse blathered on about how bad cereal is was of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.   “No Cereal for you!”

No, not this Extreme

Now, I’m not saying that she hasn’t made some poor choices in food…  She’s been trying to drink more water but, you know….water is BORING.  So, to make it a little more interesting we got some of those Crystal Light mixers.  Well, we neglected to read the label very carefully because we actually bought the “Energy” kind which has as much caffeine in it as, oh I don’t know: a friggin’ Monster Energy Drink.  Crystal Light….it’s EXTREME!   Seriously, this crap had more caffeine in it than a goddamn Red Bull…WTF?

Well, Malia had to find this out the hard way by drinking a boatload of the stuff before realizing what it was.  By then, it was too late…the damage had been done.  Keep in mind that she has been a saint and kicked the caffeine monkey cold turkey as soon as she found out she was preggers and hasn’t really touched the stuff since.  Well, she just accidentally dosed her and little Syd pretty good.  She had the caffeine shakes and everything. 

The most interesting part came later that evening when all of that jittery goodness made its way down to Sydney…  That kid went. Freaking. Nuts.  I swear, you could see her doing somersaults in there.  She must’ve been doing cartwheels or something…it was crazy.  We could even make out her outline on Malia’s belly, like she was trying to kick her way out and take on the world!  Now I’m worried that we’ve created some little crackhead baby addict; our own little Tyrone.  I’m sure that I’m going to catch her one of these days snorting Pixie Sticks in her closet.  If you don’t know what Pixie Sticks are, it’s basically the kid equivalent of doing Heroine…so, suffice it to say that it’s really, really bad.  I’ve always joked with Malia that this was our “starter” kid.  She’s going to be messed up…for sure.  We’ll have another one and maybe do it right from all the messed up stuff that have done to her.  If it’s a boy, maybe we’ll name him Mulligan.

29 weeks

Me: "So, you're gonna do this pic in jammies, huh?"
Malia: "You're damn right I am."

Sorry for the long stretch between postings...I'm sure our tens of readers have been waiting with eager anticipation.  Well, the last couple of weeks have been pretty busy for us, leaving me virtually no time to get all bloggy.

Malia has been feeling well despite having been recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes last week.  She barely squeaked in over the limit on 2 out of her 4 blood glucose tests, which technically means that she has it.  From what we've been able to learn on our own and through our doctor, it seems to be the most common ailment of pregnant women and isn't at all serious if looked after properly.  Malia's sister, Faith, had it with her last two kids so we weren't surprised when the tests came back that Malia had it as well.  Bye bye Ben & Jerry's...at least for now!

Yes Wilford, we got our diabeetus supplies
from Liberty Medical

We went to an appointment with a dietitian and got the ins and outs of controlling her blood sugar through diet and Malia got a nifty blood sugar monitor.  The dietitian seemed pretty impressed with our diet that we have already and we were both relieved to learn that there wasn't going to be all that much we had to change.  She was mostly bummed to find out that she couldn't eat all the fruit she could get her hands on anymore.  Apparently, that stuff is like kryptonite to diabetics.  So far, that's been the biggest pain in the ass about this...that and she has to remember to check her blood sugar after she eats.  I don't really think she is all that diabetic as most all of her readings are coming out on the low end of the range so far.

See Dad, it even has windows!

My Dad & step-mom, Lisa came up from S. Mississippi to visit a couple of weeks ago.  We had a great time hanging out with them while we could.  It kind of sucked because neither Malia nor I could take any time off from work while they were here.  We're both saving as much vacation time as possible for when little Sydney gets here in July.  They weren't put off by it at all though...those guys didn't really even need us to be here at all!  They had their rental car and a GPS and took off.  I think the main reason Dad wanted to come up was to make sure that we weren't living in some shanty on the other side of the tracks in squalor.  This being his first grandchild coupled with that he hadn't seen my new house had him a little worried, I think.

We went out to the Skagit Valley Tulip festival and showed them the spectacle that is the tourist trap of LaConner on a sunny weekend.  I think they had a good time, but you can only see so many fields full of flowers and antique shops before they all start to look alike.  I think Lisa was able to get some good ideas and inspiration from the local shops for her pottery, though.  I had fun learning more about how to use the new camera.  That thing is pretty amazing!  I have some more pics on my Flickr site if you're interested.

They also, very generously, took us down to Ikea and bought us some much needed furniture for the baby.  This being their first time, Lisa had a great time looking at all the trendy, very European, stuff that Ikea is famous for.  Dad was a good sport, too.  He and I had a good time making fun of all the retarded Swedish names for everything...

It was a weird strip club, OK?
Don't judge me.

We have a couple of other major events on our plate last week of having both the bachelor and bachelorette parties for our friends, Ron & Mindy.  I was in charge of the bachelor party so I made sure that there was plenty of food, booze, music and that we met the obligatory bachelor party boobie quota.  I grilled some steaks up here at the house and then we piled into a rented Yukon to see some live music downtown....and then of course: the strip club.

I could hardly watch these girls on the stage without thinking about being a dad to a little girl soon... It reminded me of the Chris Rock bit:
"Your only job as a father to a daughter...the only job.. is to keep her off the pole!"






Malia was in charge of the bachelorette party and all I know about it was that it was at the notorious local gay bar, "Neighbors".  There was lots of freakiness to be had by all.  Malia did relay that even with all the freaks walking around in full body PVC gimp suits, everyone was looking at the pregnant lady as if she was the one that was weird...whatever.