Mom's Visit

So, as many of you know, MD came to visit for ten days. Something you may not know is that MD has lots of energy. She is hard to keep up with normally, never mind when 31 weeks pregnant!

That said, I couldn't have done this without her.....isn't it cute?

Yes, we will move the random tools out of the way before little BB is born although I am hoping he will be handy like his grandfather! Oh and then after we did that, we worked on the playroom that was filled with boxes, the garage, the living room, the kitchen and just about every other room in the house. No wonder the doctor ordered me to relax for a few days!

Another strange side effect

Who knew that another strange side effect of pregnancy was numbness in one's fingers and toes? Anyone? Yeah, me neither. At the moment, my left pinkie and half of the finger next to it a number and my right middle finger is as well. Makes typing a bit difficult......Apparently it is caused by a fluid buildup pressing on the nerves. Ick.

So we can add this to the list of things that people (meaning friends who have been through it!) should tell you before you get pregnant. Yeah, yeah, I know there are books "What to expect..." yadda yadda but who has time to read a 400 page book while working and sleeping 10 hours a day? Not to mention squeezing in all those doctor's appointments and the obligatory cooing over baby clothes and the other assorted things the little 7 lb (fingers crossed....well as much as they can be since they are numb!) monster needs.

Bottom line, before you get pregnant, talk to me. I will tell you everything, no holds barred, promise.

Food Friday - Capriccio

Capriccio is a summertime standby on Bedford Street. With plentiful outdoor seating, a varied food menu and yummy drinks (not that I have enjoyed one of those lately.....), it amazes me that HB and I don't dine there more frequently.

We have tried things from all the categories on the menu, however, and everything has been great. They recently expanded their dessert menu and we decided to give that a whirl recently with our recently married friends K&B.

B and HB ordered the same thing called a Nutellini. It was described as mini-calzones filled with Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread. There is nothing better than Nutella in my pregnant opinion! It was good but not great. The crust could have used a little more flakiness as it was a bit tough to bite through. K ordered cream puffs of a sort which took the longest to come out but were served attractively in a martini glass with gelato. He also had an espresso with Bailey's while B had a dirty martini and HB had a plain old cappucino. I stuck with bottled flat spring water.

My dessert was awesome! It was vanilla and cherry gelato swirled together and garnished with a few sugar soaked cherries (not maraschinos - real ones!). It somewhat reminded me of Cherry Garcia ice cream, which is a favorite of mine, but lighter.

On another note, we waited about 15 minutes for a table outside at about 8:30 p.m. on a Friday night. A nice gentleman (the owner I think) took our name which was great since outdoor seating can sometimes be a free for all as in, whoever jumps on the empty dirty table first, gets it. I have yet to have a disappointing experience at Capriccio and K&B agree with me there as do most of the other people I know.

Food Friday - Buffalo Wild Wings

HB was craving wings last Friday night and BB was in agreement with some spicy wing sauce smothered in the bleu cheese he isn't supposed to have, so off we went to Buffalo Wild Wings which just opened a new location in Stamford.

It was about 6 pm so I called first to ask (1) if they have call ahead - nope, and (2) how busy was it - not too busy. We arrived there a few minutes later and were sat at a nice booth right away. Afterwards we noticed they had some outdoor seating in the back - kind of a bummer it wasn't offered up by the hostess since it was a nice night....

Our server Roland was great. Very tolerant of our waiting for our friend K to get there and good with the refills. The booths were big enough for my pregnant tummy too which is nice since we have been avoiding booths of late. They had some different lemonade variations too so I didn't feel overly left out of the drinking and carousing.

Lots of different wing sauce flavors for both boneless and bone-in wings. I ordered my boneless ones with "medium" and "hot bbq" and the boys ordered a plate of 50 wings (yes, overkill) with "parmesan garlic", "asian spice", "honey bbq" and "hot" - you can do up to four flavors. We also got some chips and salsa while we waited - not very good. The boneless wings are pretty small - each has about the same amount of meat as a bone-in wing as opposed to some other places where they are full-sized chicken fingers with wing sauce. This isn't a complaint - just an informational statement.

Friends had RAVED about the parmesan garlic wings. I personally didn't care for it at all. HB thought it was only ok and K liked it but preferred the asian spice. My medium sauce was great and the hot bbq was enough to make my nose run just a little bit. Both of the boys had a bit of trouble with the "hot" but really liked the honey bbq. But hey, they ordered them hot - what did they expect right?

All in all, I think this is a good place for some wings and beer and a sports-type atmosphere. Vinny's is cheaper ($.20 wings on Wednesdays) but BWW has a better flavor variety. Plus, if you have kids and go early, you don't have to worry about them being loud. This is something HB and I must keep in mind for the future!

The Nerve of Some People

I have to say, I love living here in Stamford but it ain't perfect! My biggest beef lately has been with the "people of entitlement" - let's call them POE's shall we? Every place has them but Fairfield County, Connecticut must rank in the top three for POE problems since we have towns with 3 of the top ten per capita incomes in the country (including #'s 1 and 2 right next door!).

MD, SIL and I went to Baby Depot on Wednesday to see if there was any baby nursery decor that could possibly replace my poor discontinued set (another story for another time....). While we were meandering through the aisles, this woman and her cart come barreling down and seriously almost hit me. If I hadn't jumped (well, not really jumped - more of a waddle/hop thing) out of the way, she would have hit me. She didn't slow down, didn't say excuse me, just kept on going as if us little people were almost too awful to be bothered with. Well, this did not please MD. I mean, really? Almost running over her pregnant daughter? So she says "Excuse you?!" very loudly while I am shushing her that it wasn't a big deal, don't worry about it, that is just how people are here.....The woman didn't even turn around. She just kept walking. So we whine about it for a few minutes and go on with our shopping (and yes, we found a great bedding set - Jungle Babies byNoJo).

Next we get in line for the checkout. 2 registers are open for the entire store so there was a big line, as would be expected. There is a woman almost done with her transactions at the register, handing over her credit card. Behind her is a woman with two toddlers and then us. Behind us is another lady with just one item to purchase. Another woman is kind of wandering at the periphery but NOT in line. All of a sudden, the woman at the register almost finished paying gestures to the wanderer to join her. I am thinking, oh ok, she is going to just pay for her friends stuff too to shorten the wait. Not cool but whatever. NOPE! She finishes her transaction and then her friend hands over her stuff and starts a new one, completely cutting everyone else in line! Seriously? Did you not notice the five adults and two children standing here?

Ugh, and this was all at ONE store on ONE day. And doesn't even mention the way people drive their Lexus/Mercedes/BMWs because that is a whole other blog for a whole different day......

Nothing to Report

I know that I said I would have new pictures of little BB after my ultrasound yesterday but BB is not exactly a cooperative baby. Makes me a little leary of him when he comes out! He has never liked the ultrasounds and rarely holds still for the techs. This time, however, he literally turned his head into my right hip bone or thereabouts making it impossible to see his face! And this was the 4-D ultrasound where MD, T-Rex and HB were all there (and yes, it was very strange walking into the doctor's office with an entourage.....).

BB also won't move for MD. He will be moving away consistently and then I grab her hand and put it on my stomach and he stops. Granted, she hasn't been that patient in leaving her hand there for long either but BB is up to his old tricks! He used to pull this with HB but patience was rewarded there. He isn't moving as much the last week though, anyways, because his space is getting a tad more cramped. He is up to 3 lb 5 oz as of yesterday which means he has almost doubled in weight in the last month - incredible! No wonder my tummy looks so much bigger.

So yesterday was a BB-filled day with doctor's appointments, grandmothers-to-be, auntie-to-be and ultrasounds as well as a little lunch and shopping. Sunshine, babies and shopping - what could be better than that?!

Just Call Me The Flash

....and it isn't because I run fast either. I know there are all kinds of whacked out side effects of pregnancy like your belly button popping out (so far so good there), etc. but the one that is driving me the most crazy is the hot flashes.

I should start with the fact that I am trying to grow my hair out so that I can just throw it in a ponytail once the baby comes rather than deal with the pain of blow drying and flat ironing the crap out of my wavy frizz. The problem is that it makes the hot flashes so much more awful. Even the tiny littlelest bit of hair on my forehead make me sweat twice as much. How is that even possible?!

I wear dresses so that I get an "updraft" so to speak. I wear my hair up. I wear shoes without socks so I can take them off and cool off my feet in the hopes that the rest of my body will follow suit. NONE of this helps. And Mondays at work are the worst because they turn the air off all weekend and it becomes stuffy and stagnant and stiffling and just plain hot. UGH. And then I have to run around with a big cart full of files, in and out of a hot elevator.

Bottom line...today wasn't a good day. At least I barely saw D and N, my arch enemies.....

73 Days Left!

Can you believe it? I can't. Only 73 days until little BB hopefully comes into the world. I say hopefully because all of my friends who are first time moms and didn't have scheduled induction or c-sections were late late late. Of course, HB thinks BB is going to be two weeks early. Two weeks is fine.


As long as it is after August 7th because I have to retake the ethics exam then so I can be admitted to the Connecticut Bar. Yeah yeah, I know....still not admitted. Hopefully it'll happen when I am on leave. And yes, lawyers have to take an ethics exam although you'd never know it with some of them!


Anyways, here is a little pic for you of BB on 5/20. He was 1 lb, 15 oz back then. (By the way, it is a profile shot of his head only - you can see his little hand there on the left side as well - his mouth is open just waiting for that thumb!). He will have another pic - a 4D one! - next Wednesday. We can't wait!

Doula

I have been getting a lot of questions about a certain subject lately when I bring it up. I realized that having a doula isn't all that common in certain parts of the country or in certain age groups so I thought I had some explaining to do.

Several of my friends hired doulas for the birth of their children recently. Each and every one of them absolutely swears by the experience. A doula is someone who is trained in the stages of childbirth. She helps you through the birthing process and assists in keeping you calm and relaxed as well as facilitates communication regarding your birth plan with the various nurses, doctors and other people surrounding the birth experience.....kind of like a super knowledgeable extra mom with a backbone of steel. Studies have shown that doulas can reduce the necessity for induction and pain medications while assisting in the speed of labor.

Our choice to hire a doula was two-fold. One, my mom may not be here for the birth if I go early since she lives in AZ and has to contend with flight schedules, delays, cancellations and the otherwise awesomeness of air travel today in order to get here. The second was that there aren't really any reasonably priced and well respected birthing classes offered in our area. The one at our hospital is $250.00 and our doctor even said don't bother. Apparently, half of the class is spent on a hospital tour which you can get for free any Tuesday night anyways! Gone are the days when, according to MD, area churches offered Lamaze classes for a nominal fee. Granted, we live in the digital age and have access to books and instructional DVDs far more readily than our own mothers did but I don't think there is any substitute for the live coaching that a doula or other birth coach can provide.

So we signed up with Birth Partners, LLC and, so far, are really impressed with them. The owner, Janet, will personality match us with a doula who will be our dedicated doula, absent an emergency, for the birth. Our doula will be available to us 24 hours a day for questions or if I go into labor. In addition to coming t the house for a meeting which will allow us to get to know her better, she will come to the house when I think I am in labor and help us stay relaxed and focused until it is time to go to the hospital. I can't wait to meet her!

MD

And by that I mean Mommy Dearest, my mother. She is coming to visit for about ten days and I can't wait! MD is the queen bee of organization and home decor and I desparately need help at the new house.

How desparately? Well, there are only window coverings in two of the bedrooms and they are el-cheapo Home Depot special blinds. Which means if you drive by my house, you can see right in. Of course there isn't much to see - it is all still in boxes, bags and crates.

I know I shouldn't feel bad about this because we have only been here six weeks or so and have been out of state for the last four weekends (crazy, huh? It is a long time before I want to go back to NJ) but I am starting to "nest" a little bit on top of my normally obsessively orderly personality. It is not a good combo. I think about my playroom filled with boxes while I am in the shower, at work, driving, at the doctor's office....well, you get the picture.

One or two of my friends have offered to help me given my current pregnant state but none of them have actually made good on the offer. I say "Come over anytime! I would love some help - thank you SO much!" and they avoid me for a few days in the hopes I have forgotten their offer. Besides, I don't really want anyone's help except for MD's. Because, after all, no one does as good a job as I do myself....except mom.

Ongoing Saga

This story makes me giggle because it is so transparently an attempt to get out of doing any work.....

Last Friday, I was given the job of pulling the entire calendar for Tuesday. This is a big job for one person as it includes pulling over 100 files and tabbing numerous matters that are scheduled for hearing in each file. Needless to say, I shouldn't be lifting buckets of files but don't worry, I can usually con someone into helping me lift.

At 1 p.m., I go out back to grab my car keys and head out for lunch when I notice D sitting at her desk with her leg up on a trash can bitching about the lack of ice in the building. Apparently, she slipped in the vault (where we keep our files) and hit her ankle on the wall. I am not sure how her ankle hit the wall or how she even got close enough to a wall for this to occur but suffice to say, no one saw it (also unusual since there is almost always someone in the vault doing filing and usually 2 or 3 people). Her ankle looked fine but, of course, she reported it to our boss who was frantically calling around for ice for worker's comp reasons.

There she sat for the remainder of the day. I saw her get up to go to the bathroom when she thought no one was around. No limp. No grimace of pain. Just up and took off.

Did I mention she was supposed to be helping me with the calendar pull from 2 to 5?

Baby Post - Beware

So little BB is quite a mad man. He is a mover and a shaker. Problem is, people don't believe me because every time he is moving and someone asks if they can feel, as soon as a hand touches my belly, he ceases and desists. In a way, this is helpful. If he is moving around at night when I want to sleep, I can just rub my belly a bit and leave my hand there and he stops.

But goshdarnit BB, people want to feel you move! We poke and we prod and nothing gets you started again. So we give up. And wouldn't you know, five to ten minutes later, you are back at it. And I can't very well lay on the floor of the courthouse quietly while someone sits with their hand on my tummy for 20 minutes. The bailiff might have something to say about that!

I am already starting to feel kind of sad, though, that I only have three more months of enjoying BB's punches, kicks, headbutts and the general feeling of okayness that comes along with his movement :(

New Hair Disaster

I hate to post co-worker posts back to back but since the last one was somewhat of a rant and this one isn't, I'll go for it.

As most of you know, I have an ongoing disdain for my co-worker D. She is 45 (yup, she had a birthday the Friday I was out after my FIL died and apparently her new buddies which are the same people who used to be friends with me until recently had pizza and a cake for her), lives at home with her mother, never been married and bitter as all hell. Plus she is dumb and lazy. Not that I am keeping track.....

Anyways, her hair has never been a thing of beauty but not hideous to blog about like Roots....until now! She had a kind of all one length thing going with overly long bangs. This would have been okay except she doesn't blow dry and her hair is quite thick and frizzy/wavy. Occasionally she would pull it back in (horror of horrors) a banana clip or one of those cheap plastic clips the hairdresser uses to section your hair while cutting or occasionally this pearled, bedazzled barette that would be more appropriate for a wedding. But this is all in the past.....

Today she came in with a feathered 'do reminiscent of Farah Fawcett. Except Farah's hair was straight and she styled it and it looked good. You know, back in the 1980's when that cut was cool. The sad thing is, I think D's hair was still the way the hairdresser styled it (it looked a tiny bit slept on and then refluffed) which means that today is the best it is going to look. And there is D, prancing around like she is the cat's meow. Um, not so much, no.

Food Friday - Amore

HB and I went to Amore in Springdale several weeks ago because I was craving some good eggplant parm and it was in the neighborhood. Parking was convenient which is nice because sometimes in Stamford it can get dicey.

First off, there was an unfortunate misspelling of broccoli rabe on the menu - they replaced the second "b" with a "p" - poor broccoli! Of course, HB picked up on this right away. Second, our server didn't speak English that well and I really couldn't understand the specials but, hey, I was there for eggplant anyways. Third, the bread was not good. Italian places should have good bread to mop up the sauce. This was about as absorbent as the cheap state toilet paper at work.

We started with friend calamari. A tad overdone but when isn't it? The red sauce was fairly generic. Overall, okay. I ordered my eggplang and HB a pasta dish with sausage. The eggplant was around $20, the same price as most of the meals that included chicken on the menu. It came out about the size of a deck of cards in the middle of the plate. No pasta. No salad. No sides. Just a slab of layered eggplant. It was tender but somewhat tasteless (likely because the red sauce was tasteless). HB stated that his was okay but only okay.

For dessert we ordered a cannoli to share. It was $8 I think. It was warm. I don't personally like warm ricotta cheese. It makes me think of bacteria. It also had a funny rancid almond taste in the shell.

So, in case you couldn't tell, we won't be going back. I have heard their pizza for takeout is good though but I think I will stick with Hope Pizza and Colony Grill thank you very much.

The Gall of Some People

So, as I may have mentioned, HB's father passed away in his sleep last Thursday night. We got the call at 8:10 a.m. on Friday morning. I called work and left a message letting them know I wouldn't be in and off to New Jersey we went to take care of arrangements, etc.

Cleaning out the belongings of another person is not a quick job. It continued through Monday. I again called in sick to work on Monday. Mondays are busy days but my boss assured me that it was not a problem and to take as much time as I needed. I was back in work Tuesday morning. A few people offered their condolences and hugs and that was fine.

Someone that I was supposedly friends with until the Friday before Memorial Day weekend (and the reason we aren't friends anymore is so absurd that it isn't even worth an entire blog post - see the footnote below) said nothing. In fact, she proceeded to send me several emails during the day accusing me of various things and basically stating that it is my fault she has to be a bitch to me. Yeah, like I have time for this crap?!

Wednesday I was off again for a doctor's appointment and the memorial service. I come back to work Thursday to find out that she has been complaining that I have been out so much and that makes more work for her! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THIS CRAP?! Not to mention that she hasn't actually done ANY of my work. It is just that I am not there to help her out with hers!

Seriously, some people......




FOOTNOTE: This former friend texted me at 9:30 p.m. the Friday night before Labor Day, after I had left work early because I didn't feel well, and said that she never thought she would see the day when I acted like the person I hate the most (not that she even knows who I hate the most because she doesn't know me well enough for that!) but that she would forgive me because I am pregnant and hormonal. EXCUSE ME?! I had no idea what she was talking about but apparently she was mad because I gave her a dirty look (I think I would remember that as I am a generally smiley person) and didn't find her to say goodbye to her before I left to GO HOME SICK (because someone who is six months preggo and feeling nauseous and dizzy should definitely be wandering around a building just to say goodbye to her co-workers). At this point, a lot more has been set (although almost none by me because I thought it would blow over). But it's all good right? 'Cause I am just pregnant and hormonal......