Man, oh man.  Morning sickness has already graced my presence… and I can’t say that I was thrilled to be vomiting in a bucket.  Monkey and I went out to lunch with one of my friends and everything was fine.  We walked around after, went to a few stores, and I was a-okay.

Then when I got home, BAM.  It was like my body was just waiting for me to be home so that I could let it all out.  Literally.

I felt nauseous.  I had to sit down right away, rather lay down on the couch.  It was bad.  One throw up led to another and another and another.  Yep, four times total.  I was scared of becoming dehydrated, so I ate a popsicle.  Bad move.  It came up too.

(And just for the record, I thought that I remembered that corn nuts helped me last time.  Well, let’s just say that I ate some and they are absolutely disgusting coming back up.)

I went to bed and prayed that I would sleep all night and wake up feeling better… and I did.

Of course, I might as well be pregnant for the first time because I don’t remember for the life of me how sick, or if I was sick a lot last time around.  I need to go back on this blog and see how sick I was.  Tarzan remembers me being sick frequently, but I remember being sick just a handful of times.  Ahh, it’s so easy to forget the bad times, isn’t it?

I’m not that far along, but I guess morning sickness can start right away.  Everything becomes fair game.  I read that morning sickness can be there even before people miss their period.  Those pregnancy hormones floating around in our bodies are crazy!

Oh and I have no idea exactly how far along I am.  Based on when we had sex, I should be 5 weeks pregnant this coming Saturday.  Based on my last period, I should be 5 weeks pregnant today.  Guess I’ll find out when I have my first appointment, which I obviously need to schedule now.

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Folks, it looks like Jane and I will be coming back after all.  :)  Let the fun and games begin!  And dare I mention… pregnancy hormones!!??

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Craigslist.

I have a love/hate relationship with Craigslist.  I love that we can make some money when we tire of something, but I hate, hate, hate the idea of inviting a stranger into our house.

It’s weird, no?

If you remember back when I was pregnant I posted a blog post about how I thought my husband was abducted by someone like the Craigslist killer when we were trying to sell my car.  I was scared out of my mind & I chalked it all up to pregnancy hormones & pregnancy anxiety.

I’m currently not pregnant & still have the same thoughts (& fears) about Craigslist.

We listed a few things on Craigslist & someone wanted to come over last night around 7pm.  At that time it is pitch black outside & everyone knows that nighttime is when all the crazies come out.  (Kidding. Kind of.)

Anyways, prior to this couple coming over, I was telling Tarzan my fears of Craigslist.  What if they are just scoping out our house to rob it?  What if they are planning on kidnapping our baby?  What if, What if, What if…

My husband looked at me like I was crazy, but still heard me out.  I said, “How will we protect ourselves if something happens?” & he said, “With my fist.”

Sure I have confidence in my husband that he could kick some ass, but I wanted a little more reassurance.  I mean, what if a gun was involved – What would his fist do then?  A whole lot of nothing, if you ask me.

Then he said the most brilliant thing, “What do you want me to do, Jane? Carry a butcher knife?”

Ding, ding, ding.  I quickly replied with an enthusiastic, “YES!”

He looked at me like I was crazy, but hey, he was the one that offered & I just took him up on his offer.  He went into the kitchen to get a knife & he said, “You just expect me to answer the door with a butcher knife?”

Hmm, good point.

I told him to put it in his sock because his jeans would cover the stashed knife.  He tested it out by walking out of the bathroom (I was giving Monkey a bath), into the kitchen, & back into the bathroom.  He told me that it was hurting his ankle & scratching his skin.  I asked if he was bleeding, he said no, & I told him to keep it there.

We need some sort of protection, you know?!

The people came & left & no harm was done.  Tarzan quickly took the knife out of his sock, told me I was crazy with a smile on his face, & we went back to our night.

Anyone else leery of Craigslist like I am?

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Now that motherhood has been a part of my life for almost 5 weeks, I feel a little more confident about all things mom and baby related.  Notice I said “a little more confident”… I still have a long ways to go, but looking back to when Monkey was just born, I have come a long way.  There’s still so much for me to learn and room for my confidence to increase tenfold.

Motherhood is so unique that nothing except experience can really prepare you.  You can read books, blogs, or listen to advice from parents, but it will not be the same when you have a child.  It’s just something that you need to figure out on your own according to your needs and your baby’s needs.  I have a feeling that motherhood is a constant learning experience that just makes you into a better mom day after day.

While I have no idea what the future holds or what obstacles will come our way, I do know that there were many things that no one told me about after childbirth, labor and delivery, and coming home with baby and what to expect.  I hope to pass these things onto you so that you won’t be as surprised at some of them like I was.

And in no particular order, here are some things on what to expect after childbirth, labor and delivery, and coming home with baby that no one told me about:

1.  I never expected motherhood to feel so lonely, especially in the beginning.  Talk about being thrown into the unknown world of breastfeeding, poopy diapers, a squirmy newborn, and lack of sleep.  It was a challenge to say the very least.

2.  Unsolicited advice from everyone.  If I had a dime for every time my mom told me that I was started on rice cereal when I was 1 week old because I consumed 32 oz of formula in one night & maybe, just maybe, that would be good for Monkey, I’d be rich.

3.  Feeling possessive over baby, especially with in-laws.  I feel like they are taking time away from me bonding with Monkey and I have no idea why.  I do not feel this way with my mom or my husband.  Perhaps it’s my hormones.

4.  I had no idea that I would do laundry and the dishes at least one time every single day.  (Stock up on dishwashing detergent & Dreft, or whatever detergent you use for your baby’s clothes.)

5.  I never knew that I wouldn’t be able to drive for 6 weeks after giving birth.  And this was a vaginal birth with a minimal tear that required just a couple of stitches.  It made no sense to me really.  The OB on call said that it was in case I was driving and had to brake fast that could be dangerous since I just gave birth.  Despite me not understanding even after this explanation, I still followed and didn’t drive for 6 weeks.

6.  Postpartum bleeding (aka lochia).  Basically bleeding, like a really heavy period, for many days after giving birth.  Once the heavy bleeding stopped, I was greeted with a lighter blood.  This part was a complete surprise to me and one of the things I dreaded the most.  Wearing a pad in your panties constantly really sucks & I felt like I smelled all of the time.  I could do without this postpartum bleeding for sure.  Consider yourself warned.

7.  Feeling like a cow milking all the time.  Not to knock breastfeeding at all, but pumping breastmilk was no fun.  Talk about feeling like a cow being milked.

8.  Hormones being so out of whack and having a hard time emotionally.  Never expected this one at all.  Again not to knock the ladies that suffer from the baby blues and postpartum depression, but I just thought I was strong enough to not suffer from this.  As you and I both know, being strong has nothing to do with it.  And who would have guessed that I would have to be on an anti-depressant for postpartum depression.

9.  The bathroom experience.  This one ties into the postpartum bleeding.  After you go to the bathroom, you have to cleanse yourself and your lady parts with a squirt bottle full of warm water.  Then pat area dry.  Then spray dermoplast on the area.  Then put a pad in your panties.  Then put two witch hazel pads overlapping on the pad that is already in your panties.  Then spray epifoam on the witch hazel pads.  Pull up panties.  Wash hands.  Repeat every single time you have to go to the bathroom.

10.  Being so tired, but not being able to nap during the day.  I think I’ve adjusted for the most part to not sleeping as much as I used to, but in the beginning it was really tough.  I’ve never been a napper before, but I thought that I’d be able to nap after giving birth.  Well, I was wrong.  I would be so freakin’ tired, go lay down in my bed while the baby was napping, even put on a sleep mask to block out the light, and still would not be able to fall asleep.  So frustrating.

11.  Feeling like a supermom to try to get everything done during the day.

12.  Feeling like a guilty mom if I’m not holding little Monkey constantly.

13.  It only took waking up once with leaky boobs & a wet tank for me to remember to wear nursing pads all of the time.

14.  Amazed at the weight loss that seemed to virtually fall off, but feeling so flabby & out of shape & still wearing maternity clothes.

15.  Hearing my baby cry sends shivers down my spine and that crying is only for two seconds until I figure out what it is that he wants.

16.  Getting peed on isn’t nearly as bad or awful as I thought it would be.  I feel proud for shielding the urine from Monkey’s face at my expense.  Getting pooped on is another story though.

17.  If parents or in-laws offer to stay with you and help out after you get home from the hospital, ask questions first.  If they are willing to help out and cook meals, clean up, and let you sleep – say yes!  If they expect you to do that stuff while they hold the baby – think twice about it.  For real.

18.  Think about whether or not you want visitors at the hospital.  I was sure that I did, but then changed my mind once I was in the hospital.  It was too much, with trying to get the hang of breastfeeding, changing diapers, etc.  I had the nurse put a note on the door that said “no visitors please”.  It was necessary to keep my sanity.  (The same goes for when you arrive home too.)

19.  Don’t worry about not returning phone calls immediately.  Tell your husband to call or send out a text letting people know that you are doing just fine, but don’t feel obligated to call anyone back.  At least I didn’t.  Just last week I called my best friend back.  If they are your true friends, even if they haven’t had a baby yet, they will understand.  I promise.

20.  In the hospital, especially when I was breastfeeding, I would feel awful, awful cramps in my stomach.  I was informed that this was my uterus contracting to get back down to its original size and that breastfeeding helps it faster.  The cramping hurt at times and then I would feel & notice a large amount of blood coming out.  The lactation consultant, nursery nurse, and my nurse all told me that it was so normal.

21.  Bowel movements.  I was scared that the first bowel movement would hurt, but it did not at all.  It took about 3 weeks postpartum for me to return back to being, um, regular on a daily basis.  I tried to help things along, even bought & drank prune juice, which is as completely awful as I thought it would be.

22.  Witch hazel pads (or Tucks) feel oh so good down there.

23.  Initially I didn’t want to eat or drink anything after giving birth and for the first weeks after returning home.  I think I was just having a lot of the postpartum blues and that affected my appetite.  Glad to say that it is and has been back to normal for about two weeks.

24.  The first week you come home with baby is the most rough.  Remind yourself that it gets better every day.

25.  It’s ok if you aren’t flowing with joy right away.  I woke up from a nap during the first week & my initial thought was “damn, this is still my life”.

26.  Night sweating.  Talk about going from being 29 years old and in my prime to feeling menopausal overnight.  Night sweating is no fun and still plagues me a few nights a week.  I’m told it’s the blood volume adjusting back to normal and that it should stop soon.  I can only hope.  Tarzan even told me that I soaked his pillow and the sheets the other night.  Gross & that just adds more laundry to wash.

27.  No exercise until my 6 week appointment.  It’s probably a good thing that this is a “rule” because I don’t know how I would have found the time (or energy) to exercise right after Monkey was born.  I’m so completely jealous of those ladies who return to their skinny selves during this period because it just means that they have good genes and I don’t.

28.  When I run errands, I walk around proudly.  Yes, I have a flabby tummy postpartum, but that serves as a reminder that I carried my son for 9 months in a healthy atmosphere and that I have a healthy son waiting for me at home.  There is nothing more empowering than knowing that I survived childbirth and that it was a great experience for me.

29.  I had my tonsils out in 2004 and it hurt so bad.  Someone once told me that having your tonsils out hurt worse than childbirth.  Obviously I couldn’t agree or disagree with them since I hadn’t gone through childbirth then.  Now having gone through childbirth, I can agree that having my tonsils out and the two week recovery period was a lot worse than having my son.  Of course I do owe it all to the epidural.

30.  I have become strangely comfortable with a houseful of clutter & baby items everywhere.

31.  I have also become strangely comfortable with sharing my story of labor and delivery & breastfeeding with people that I hardly know.

32.  Doing laundry & dishes daily has become something I look forward to because it gives my nipples a chance to rest (when I was breastfeeding).

33.  Going out to walk the dog and forgetting to see what I look like before leaving the house happens more often than I would have ever thought.

34.  I thought I was bad about not wanting people to touch my pregnant belly, but lady, don’t you even think about coming close or touching my baby!  Back the eff off.

35.  A lot of the baby stuff I just had to have is still sitting in the unused baby nursery upstairs.

36.  I brought way too much stuff for labor and delivery at the hospital.  I only used maybe a couple of things and the rest was just extra stuff for Tarzan to lug around.

37.  You can never have enough batteries for all of the devices you use to keep your baby quiet, entertained, and asleep.

38.  Two words for future moms that’ll be extremely helpful to you & you’ll thank me for this later: Prune Juice.

39.  Don’t worry about pooping on the delivery table.  I was worried about this and it didn’t happen.  What did happen on my first push though was that I peed.  On the table.  On the nurse.  And on my husband.  My push was so hard that urine literally sprayed out of me.  I had a good laugh about it since I was so worried about the other coming out.  I never even thought of urine flying out and spraying everyone.

40.  Being discharged from the hospital can take an entire day.  Tell your nurse to call your dr. or the dr. on call to get things moving for you.  If hours have passed, annoy her until you get an answer.  And good luck to you if you are being discharged on a weekend.  Seriously.  Plan on waiting for a long time.

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Three weeks postpartum and time to think about what I’ve learned so far.  I really can’t believe that three weeks ago today I had our little Monkey.  When you factor in the sleep deprivation, it seems like forever ago, but it’s only been three weeks and time really does fly by when you have a baby!

When I was pregnant I tried to read up on a few baby books, but honestly, none of them really  held my interest.  I look at motherhood at a trial and error kind of thing and something that you have to experience for yourself in order to know what to do.  All babies are different and all parents are different, so what worked for one family might not have worked for us.  I tried to enjoy being pregnant, but I will admit that I was beyond anxious to get this show on the road and come home with a baby.

Oh, if only I knew just how different life would be…  Just how tired Tarzan and I would be…  I would have savored every moment in my pregnancy.  No joke.

I think it was when Monkey was a 1-week old when I got a couple of emails from acquaintances saying, “Isn’t motherhood awesome?“,  ”Isn’t motherhood heavenly?“, “Motherhood is the best thing I have ever done!“, and on and on and on.

Perhaps it’s just me, but I felt like I couldn’t answer those comments back truthfully because it was a bit premature.  I mean, my baby was only one week old and, quite frankly, at that point I felt like I wanted to run away.  I was an emotional mess (thanks pregnancy hormones) and experiencing the lovely postpartum baby blues.

Even now that I have a 3-week old, I feel like I can answer those questions better than before, but I’m not convinced just yet that it’s heavenly.  It’s an absolute miracle that Tarzan and I created this perfect (yes, he’s perfect!) little baby, but the word that comes to my mind first when I think of motherhood is “hard work”.

Seriously.

I never expected that being a mom to someone would be this hard.  I expected him to spit up on occasion, but not more often than not.  I expected him to fit into our schedule, but I’ve learned that the ball is in his court:  We jump when he is hungry, not vice versa.  I’ve never had to schedule my day as much as I do now.

For example, I have to take our dog to the vet today and usually I would just pick a time in the afternoon to go.  No big deal really.  I paused on the phone with the receptionist for a few minutes when trying to figure out a good time for the appointment.  I had to keep in mind the “schedule” that Monkey appears to be on right now:  When’s he going to want to eat?  When will he be sleeping?  What’s Tarzan’s schedule like today since he’ll be watching Monkey while I’m at the vet?

So much more to think about.  Life is somewhat complicated all of a sudden…

So I’m not quite sure that I would admit it’s the best thing I’ve ever done just yet.  I have a feeling that I will get to that point, but it’s more hard than anything right now.  However, seeing my little angel smile at me (whether it’s gas or not) just melts my heart and no matter how hard it is for me, I fall more and more in love with him daily.  He’s so amazing and I know that one day I will be saying to someone, “Isn’t motherhood just the most amazing thing you’ve ever done?”

Here are some of the things that I’ve learned over these past three weeks post-partum, you know, since I’m basically a pro at this now.  Ha, ha.

1.  The swing is your best friend.

2.  Music calms the baby down instantly.

3.  Smelling like spit-up is like a new fragrance that you wear proudly.  (The same cannot be said for baby poop and baby pee that just happens to explode/shoot your way.)

4.  When you and your husband can sit down together, hold hands, and/or eat dinner, cherish those moments!

5.  Make all things baby related funny so that you don’t lose your mind or yell at your husband.  Laughter is best!

6.  Mom juice (aka wine, beer, or whatever you fancy) will help you keep your sanity at night.  I have a glass of something with dinner on most nights and look forward to it.

7.  Do whatever you have to do to make the baby content.  No need to worry about spoiling him/her this early in the game.  Babies need to be comforted.

8.  Breastfeeding and/or pumping is hard work.  I hear it gets better after these first few weeks, but I’ve not made it there just yet to say whether or not that’s true.

9.  Whether you breastfeed or formula-feed, I do not judge.  You are feeding the baby the best you can and that’s all that matters.

10.  Dishes and laundry need to be done all. of. the. time.

11.  Sleep is a precious thing of the past.  ”Sleep when the baby sleeps” is a bunch of BS so far.  I’ve not yet mastered how to sleep when it is daylight outside.  When the baby sleeps, I pick up the house.  Or blog.  Or twitter.  I most never call people back on the phone though.  I need to work on that.  Really.

12.  Baby stuff is quite expensive.  I was at Target the other day picking up a few items:  Diapers, onesies, bottles, etc and I left spending about $150.  Just like that.

13.  As hard as it might be, don’t forget about your dog in this whole process.  I’ve noticed that our dog has changed and T. and I do our best to try to keep up with his old routine, but it is hard.  And when you are holding a baby it’s nearly impossible to put him on the couch, feed him dinner, give him treats, etc.  (As you can see, I’ve not yet mastered the whole doing things with one hand.)

14.  Having a baby has brought Tarzan and I even closer.  I can’t imagine bringing a baby into this world without a wonderful partner like him.  Thanks little Monkey for making your parents fall more and more in love with each other!

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Things are finally starting to settle down and I think the postpartum baby blues have completely left my body now.  It feels nice to be on my computer again since little Monkey is sleeping.  I know that I’m supposed to sleep when he does, but I can’t grasp napping during the day just yet.  (Maybe I’m just not tired enough?!)

I wish things weren’t so crazy when we first got home because I would have loved to blog about how I was feeling.  I’ll try my best to recap my feelings for you now, but I feel completely different now, which is such a good thing!

I couldn’t wait to be discharged from the hospital last Saturday.  I was ready to go!  It was an exciting time to have Tarzan pack up the car and for me and Monkey to be wheeled down to meet him at the car.  It was also a scary time, like “Oh my gosh, this is it.  They are letting us go home with this baby.  How will we know what to do?”

I gave Tarzan the honors of putting Monkey in his car seat and I sat in the back with him while we embarked on the drive home.  It wasn’t too eventful and Tarzan and I talked about how crazy it was to be leaving with a baby.  Just two days prior we were just “Jane and Tarzan, party of two” and now we were “Jane, Tarzan, Monkey, party of three”.

We were parents all of a sudden.  It wasn’t just about the two of us anymore.  We arrived at the hospital being a twosome and we were leaving as parents.  So crazy mixed with a lot of scary and a little uneasiness.

Once we got home, Tarzan and Monkey stayed in the car and I went inside to greet our dog.  I know I’m a mom to a baby now, but I am also a mom to our dog too.  It’s so important for both Tarzan and myself that we don’t forget about our dog during this process.  I greeted our dog, let him sniff a blanket that Monkey was wrapped in, played with him, and gave him lots of love (and treats too!).

Then I went back into the car to stay with Monkey while Tarzan came in the house to do the same thing with our dog. Once he came to the car, he got Monkey out of the car seat and I got our dog. I was hoping that he would be okay with the baby, but sadly he wanted nothing to do with him.

He’s the type of dog that doesn’t seem to welcome change at all, so I’m sure bringing home this new baby (who was crying at the time) just sent shivers down his spine. He wasn’t aggressive towards him or anything, just keeping his distance.

Once we all made it in the house Monkey was screaming his head off (so hungry from the drive home), Tarzan was trying to bring in all of our bags from the car, I was holding Monkey and wanting to cry myself, and then our dog threw up. Poor thing. I guess it was too much “excitement” for him and his nerves got the best of him.

After trying to balance out the mess that was now our life, we sat down and tried to calm down Monkey. This is about the time that I wanted to run away.  Hello postpartum blues.

It’s a strange feeling really. On one hand I was ecstatic to be a mom to a perfect and healthy little boy. I was happy to be home with my new family. I was thrilled to see our dog. But on the other hand, I was terrified. I had so many doubts about this new life.

Even though I was pregnant for 9 months, it still wasn’t enough time to fully prepare for just how much my life was going to change. Sure, at the end of my pregnancy, I was telling everyone that I was ready and couldn’t wait to meet my little man… and that was true, but I hadn’t fully grasped what motherhood meant.

And I guess I couldn’t know what it was like to be a mother since I wasn’t one yet. It’s one of those things that you have to experience for yourself to fully know what it is like. It’s just like the advice I got from everyone while pregnant: “Enjoy this time with your husband because it won’t be the same after the baby is here. Nap when you can. Go out to eat often. Go to the movies.”

So many people told me that but I never understood that life would be so drastically different. Now I wish I would have taken y’alls advice a little more seriously because I was missing alone time with my husband after giving birth. It was still great and wonderful between us, but the reality of the fact that it wasn’t just “us” anymore sent me into tears many, many times.

It’s the biggest change of our lives and that doesn’t come easy at all. It takes time to adjust. It takes time to try to get in the swing of things so that you don’t feel like you are completely failing at being a mother. It takes so many emotions out of you too. You are on a high at times, feeling so good, like you just got this mothering thing down… and then your baby cries and you can’t figure out why and you begin to fall apart.  You feel inadequate.

It’s all part of postpartum blues.  Who knew that you could feel like a big loser at what’s supposed to be the happiest times of your life?  It’s hard to swallow, that’s for sure.

There were times that I would just look into Monkey’s eyes and cry. He would be sound asleep on me, but the tears wouldn’t stop. I felt like a bad mom here too. There are so many people that struggle with getting pregnant or there are complications with their little one at birth. Here I was with a perfectly healthy pregnancy and newborn and something inside of me felt off.

I could look down at his sleeping so angelic, but yet have tears that my life was not like I knew it to be previously. Not that I regret him because that’s the furtherest thing from the truth. I love him so much and I didn’t know I was capable of that much love. It’s just a hard balance initially; trying to fix all the pregnancy hormones and emotions running wild while loving and taking care of this little precious angel.

But I digress.  Back to the rest of the night…

We got Monkey to calm down by putting him on my chest. We were laying on the couch together. Tarzan was putting together the swing (lifesaver!) and we were waiting for my mom to arrive. When she came over she brought Carrabas for dinner and things were still calm. We tried putting Monkey in his pack n’ play so we could eat.

I took one bite of bread and he started to cry. I started to cry too. Tarzan comforted me and my mom told me to eat – She was going to take care of the little Monkey. I told them that this was too much. Our life was too different. I wasn’t ready for this. How would we ever eat dinner together again?

This is all new territory for me because I’m not usually afraid of change. I’ve picked up and moved around randomly and like that I’m not fearful of change. But when it comes to my whole life changing over the matter of a night, it’s different and gets to me. Now I was responsible for this little being and that’s a lot of pressure. What if I fail and suck at being a mom? So many what if’s were running through my mind, hence all of the many tears.

Even though tons of tears were streaming from my face, I could look at my little boy and smile and know deep down (really deep down) that things were going to be all right in time. We all just needed to adjust.

I got some sleep that night and I felt better the next day. It’s amazing what sleep deprivation will make you feel like and it’s equally amazing what getting some sleep will do for you too. I felt like I was ready to conquer this motherhood thing. Like I was capable of doing it now. Not gonna lie, it was a nice feeling.

But short-lived.

I got tired again. I wasn’t really eating – When was there time? And what appetite was I feeding because I surely wasn’t hungry at all. And water consumption? Forget about it.

When I was pregnant I drank so much water. Shoot, even before I was pregnant me and water were friends. I would pick water over Coke, tea, and anything else. But with a baby I’m finding it’s hard to even shower. There’s always a million things to do and sometimes I forget to take care of myself. (Proud to say that I’ve showered everyday though.)

Monday night was rough too. My mom was making dinner in the kitchen, I just fed Monkey, and Tarzan suggested I take a bath. After all, I love baths. I wasn’t too excited about taking a bath, but I gave in. I ran the bath water, climbed in the bathtub, and began to cry.

At first it was only tears, but that turned in to full-blown bawling. Alone. In the bathtub.  Not a good combination.

Next thing I knew Tarzan was in the bathroom asking me what was wrong. I just told him that everything was changing too fast. We, the couple that did everything together, would no longer be. We, the couple who prided ourselves on not having a schedule or daily routine, would now have to follow some sort of a schedule for the sake of our new child. We, the couple that slept in daily until we were ready to wake up, would have to follow a baby’s schedule.  And I went on and on.

All trivial things really, but it scared the crap out of me. When I was pregnant I was so scared of losing myself in the process. I never wanted to be that girl who only talked about strollers and baby poop.  Now that I have a baby I became scared of what my daily life would be like.

Of course my wonderful husband sat on the edge of the tub, stroking my arm and telling me that everything would be just fine.  He said that he read some information on postpartum blues and that these feelings should pass soon.  He said that all of these feelings I was having were normal and part of postpartum blues after having a baby.  He told me that he was so proud of me and that I was already such a great mom to our little boy.  He said that we would get in the swing of things and having a routine wouldn’t be so bad.   He even went as far to say that it would be good for us.

After crying for at least 30 minutes, I decided that it wasn’t the best time to be alone in the bathtub.  It was only making me feel worse because I was forced to think about how everything changed.  And then there’s our dog too…

He wouldn’t even come near me.  Tarzan picked him up and I leaned over to give him a kiss and got nothing.  This made me cry even more & say that I thought he hated me.  I’m sure this whole process has to be weird and hard for a dog, especially our dog because he was our only baby for the past 6 years.  Tarzan told me not to take it personal; our dog would come around soon enough.  It would just take some time.

That night really sticks out to me as the worst of the worst for my postpartum blues.

I just felt completely inexperienced and completely incapable of taking care of our baby… and that’s such an awful feeling when you are a new mom.  I even told Tarzan that I didn’t feel very motherly at all.  I didn’t really talk to the baby and I certainly didn’t sing to him.  I would try so hard to comfort Monkey but I was a mess myself.  It turned into a disaster that would always end with more crying.  And that’s incredibly depressing when you can’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel.

What’s also really depressing and has nothing to do with postpartum blues is the fact that I started to leak everywhere.  Everywhere, I tell you!  No one told me that my vagina would bleed off and on for 6 weeks after labor and delivery.  I had no idea.  It’s such a process to go to the bathroom:  Pee, cleanse myself with warm water, put a pad on my panties, put Tucks pads on, put epifoam on Tucks pads, pat myself dry, spray something on my vagina, pull up pants, and wash hands.  It’s exhausting!

Aside from leaking down there, my boobs started to leak.  I woke up one morning to find my shirt and nursing bra completely wet.  Ever since then, you can rest assure that I don’t forget to wear my nursing pads anymore!  My mouth also leaks.  Apparently pregnancy made me start drooling and it hasn’t stopped now that I have a baby.  And my body sweats at night.  No idea why because I’m not really hot.

So not being able to see the baby situation getting better, paired with leaking everywhere, I was not too excited about this chapter of my life.

Tuesday night my mom left.  Consider it bad timing to have the baby when I did because my parent’s house that they were building was finished and it was time for them to close on it.  We were on our own on Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night and it was tough.  I didn’t get so emotional about it because I knew that my mom would be coming back; I just wasn’t exactly sure when that would be.

Tuesday night was awful for us.  Monkey was really fussy and it seemed that there was nothing we could do to calm him.  Again, I just cried and Tarzan looked like he wanted to.  It’s pretty damn frustrating when you change the diaper, feed him, burp him, comfort him, rock him, and nothing seems to calm him down.  We were up off and on all night long and we both had a look like “What did we get ourselves into?” on our faces.

Wednesday night was better.  Tarzan told me to take a nap since we didn’t get much sleep the night before and I did.  When I first woke up, my first thought was, “Oh, this is still my reality.”  And then I buried my head back under my pillow.  It’s like I was hoping to wake up and have my old life back in a sense.  Not for one second did I wish my son wasn’t here, I just longed for how easy my life was before he joined us.  It’s so hard to put into words just how I was feeling…

I got a lot of sleep that night and Tarzan took care of Monkey while I slept.  Sleep is an amazing pick-me-up, I’ve learned.  This was always the night that everything seemed to change for the better.

While Tarzan was taking care of Monkey he figured something out.  I had told him previously that I thought we were missing Monkey’s hunger cues because I read that crying is the last one.  Tarzan decided to wake up Monkey every 3-4 hours so that he wasn’t so frantic when he woke up screaming on his own.  This worked all night for Tarzan and for me when I took over so T. could sleep.

Then things started to get a little easier for us.  We were still without my mom, but we were handling things at home and doing a pretty good job with minimal tears coming from me.  It was a nice change.  We woke up, fed Monkey, put him down for a nap, and then had breakfast together.  I even commented to Tarzan about how nice it was and how it was just like our “old” life.  It’s amazing what things I probably took for granted between the two of us prior to Monkey being here.  I didn’t really entirely just how precious everyday things were, like running errands together or eating breakfast together.

Tarzan and I would comment over the next few days how proud of ourselves we were that we were in control of everything without my mom.  We said what a good team we are and would “bump” our fists and then burst into laughter.  I felt a little more like myself with every day that passed and I felt a little more confidence build up inside of me when it came to taking care of our son too.

It was nice.  Very, very nice.  And I felt like the postpartum blues were slipping further and further away from my body.  My hormones were starting to balance out once again and I was feeling like I was capable of taking care of my new, little family.

My mom came back on Friday night and she fed Monkey while Tarzan and I slept.  I’d been pumping so there was enough breastmilk for her to feed him at night while I skipped one feeding to sleep.  (I was told this was okay to do and my sanity depended on it.)

My postpartum baby blues were diminishing with each day and I was feeling more in control and like I could actually handle my life.  I will admit that I was scared of how the postpartum blues were making me feel.  I never had any death thoughts for myself or my son like what might happen with postpartum depression, just so you know.  It was more a feeling of being extremely incapable and just downright scared about this huge new change.  And what a big change it is!

I was chatting with one of my best friends on instant messenger briefly one day while I was in the midst of feeling the postpartum blues.  Not a good idea.

The whole time I was pregnant I was telling her that she should get pregnant too.  She was not onboard with that at all.  This particular day on instant messenger she asked how things were and how I was doing.  I told her that she should definitely wait to have kids until she is ready because it’s a huge adjustment.  I told her that it was hard work and that I was scared.  Then Monkey started to cry and I had to go.

When I talked to her a couple of days ago she told me that I sounded better and more positive about everything.  She said that I worried her when we last talked because it wasn’t like me to say to wait until she was ready.  I was always so gung ho on her having kids with me and suddenly I wasn’t that way anymore.  I told her that I was having a rough time, but I still thought she would wait until she’s ready.  Duh.

My mom just left yesterday for good.  I cried.  Even though I’m feeling better about everything, I know that I’m a good mom to Monkey, and I know that I have a good partner in Tarzan, it’s a little scary once again.  My mom didn’t do much baby stuff with Monkey while she was here.  She helped us at night so we could sleep better and she cooked dinner, did laundry, the dishes, etc, but we took care of him during the day.

She reminded me of this when I was crying.  She said that I knew what I was doing and I was such a good mom to Monkey already.  She knew that we would be okay without her.  And deep down I know she’s right.  There was just something so comforting about knowing that she was here.  Another pair of hands was really helpful and just to hear her thoughts was helpful too.  She’s raised kids before and we’re still alive and doing well so she did something right!

I know that she would have stayed longer if I asked her to, but I also knew it was time to not be selfish either.  I’m sure she was really excited to spend a night in her new house and unpack things like she wanted to do.  It would be so nice to have my mom here with us to always help out, but I also know that Tarzan and I will do okay without her.  It’s time to grow up some more and be parents… on our own.

We are a little family now and it’s time to step up to the plate and take care of things.  I’m sure that I’ll never sleep as well as I did before Monkey was here, but I wouldn’t trade seeing him look up at me and smile for any amount of sleep in the world.  He’s so precious to me already and I’m going to do all that I can to be the very best mom to him ever.

He deserves all the love in the world and no matter how inexperienced we might be right now, our hearts are overflowing with love for this little guy and experience doesn’t matter.  That will come in time and our love will just keep on growing stronger and stronger with each day that passes.

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Warning: Tarzan’s soft side is coming out here… OK, maybe it’s not much of a secret, but Jane and I are crazy about each other and have been since the first day we met.  Sure, like all couples we have our disagreements and heck, even an argument or two (or many, many more when those pregnancy hormones were kicking into high gear!), but I truly believe what we have is so powerful and so special.

We’ve both worked from home together for several years and have been fortunate enough to be able to wake up together, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner together everyday.  Over the years I’ve told that to male friends or acquaintances – the fact that my wife and I are together all the time, and many of them say something like, “I feel sorry for you” or “Oh wow, I couldn’t do that, my wife and I would drive each other crazy!”

I honestly feel bad for those people because they are obviously missing out on a part of life that I truly feel fortunate to have found: a real and true soulmate in Jane.

Now don’t get me wrong or misunderstand me.  We’re not weirdos who can’t do anything on our own – far from it.  We give each other all the space the other needs.  I’m more independent and require more “me time” and often go to the park, the bookstore, escape to play poker every once in awhile, and just do my thing.

Just as I know my “me time” is important for me, I know Jane also needs her own time.  She runs errands, goes to the bookstore to read some magazines and sips a coffee or tea, meets friends or family for lunch, and has her own independent side of her life as well.  But the important thing here is that we both know how important that time is and we never have run into any issues there.

Pregnancy brought us even closer.  Speaking of which, I just found this movie clip of the Disney movie, “Tarzan and Jane” that I never knew existed!  :)

While we were going through the whole pregnancy journey together, I had never really thought about if the journey would bring us closer or keep us the same.  Well, there’s no doubt it has brought us even closer.  The respect I have for Jane and how proud I am of her is through the roof.  Pregnancy made us much closer and having a son brought us even closer again.

I’m such a lucky guy to have found someone so beautiful, so loving, so caring, so supportive, and so wonderful to love me as much as Jane does.  I love her right back with the same force – that continues to grow each and every single day.

And not to get cheesy on you guys, I wanted to share an email I see Jane had sent me a few hours ago, along with my reply…

On Aug 2, 2009, at 10:33 PM, Jane HisBoysCanSwim.com wrote:

just a quick note to tell you that you are doing an awesome job as a dad.  i love
seeing you with little (Monkey) and it makes my heart smile.  thanks for being an
awesome husband, a fantastic dad, and letting me fall more and more in love
with you daily.

i love you.

—

And my reply back to Jane was…

Awe babe, thank you. I love you so much and I’m so proud
of you.  You are so strong, so wonderful, so beautiful, and so
loving.  I love seeing you with our son and how you look at
him and give him kisses.

He loves his mommy A LOT!  :)

Love you beautiful

—

Jane and I say “I love you” to each other many, many times a day.  We never go to bed angry at one another.  And we make a great time.  Like many couples, we’ve been though a lot, we’ve been though some tough times, stood by each other and have always been there for one another.

What we have is special – and I hope that our son Monkey finds a love like his parents share someday.  When two people are this in love, we really feel like anything is possible – and it is.  And I’m so excited to be starting this new chapter of our lives together – a life with our little Monkey.

So why am I sharing all of this with you today?

Because life speeds by us too quickly.  Sometimes you just have to hit the pause button and remember to tell your husband or wife that you love them a few times a day.  Let them know how you feel about them.  Let them know that you care.  And it doesn’t have to be anything expensive.  In fact, some of the best things you can do cost nothing.

For example, last night when Jane and I went to bed I just laid there and looked into her eyes while stroking her face and hair softly for a couple of minutes.  Neither of us said a word.  We just laid there enjoying being together.  In fact, shortly after I got up (Jane was always awake because she had to feed Monkey) Jane told me how much she loved how I just stroked her hair and cheek the night before, how sweet it was, and how much she loved me.

Everyday I tell Jane that she is beautiful.

Everyday I’m excited to see her in the morning.

Everyday I fall more and more love with her.

Everyday I realize how special of a woman Jane is.

And now everyday I’m so proud and happy to have Jane as Monkey’s mommy.

Jane is my everything and I love her so much.

So do something special for your husband or wife today – just because you love them.  Buy some flowers, cook a special dinner, get a sappy card and write something nice in it.  Or just hug them tighter than you have ever hugged them before.  Do something.  Anything.  Just because you love them.

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Wow!  I’m so unbelievably touched by how caring and just plain nice all of you have been to me (and Tarzan, too).

I told T. that I didn’t want to get on Twitter or blog about anything because I just feel let down.  Obviously I’m new to all of this and I hate that it isn’t black and white.  That would be so much easier!  I’m really surprised at how excited I got last night.  I definitely got my hopes up that “this is it” and I can’t even begin to describe how let down I felt earlier.  I am feeling much better, thanks to all of the many comments on the previous blog post.

The strangest & most touching part about this whole thing is how many “strangers” are out there rooting for us.  It’s amazing, to say the very least.  I feel so lucky to be sharing this experience with all of you because it’s so helpful for us both.  It’s nice to hear that what we are going through it normal.  That what the baby is doing inside is normal.  That even those of you with 3+ kids have experienced what I did last night.  It’s just so therapeutic for us both.

It seems like the majority of the time I go out to run errands, I come home complaining to Tarzan about how people just aren’t nice anymore.  People don’t smile.  They cut you off when driving.  They let a door slam in your face without even thinking twice.  They just keep on walking after you’ve held the door open for them.  And on and on and on.

It infuriates me.  Not that I’m this “I want world peace” all of the time kind of girl, but I’m nice.  I take other’s feelings into consideration.  I try to smile at people, especially when they look like they need it the most.  I truly care about brightening up someone’s day if I can do it.  I’m just nice.

I feel like so much of the niceness of the world has vanished & I think that’s why I’m so touched by the outpour of love from you guys.  Y’all don’t even know us in real life.  Shoot, you *think* my husband’s name is Tarzan, for pete’s sake.  But yet, you visit our blog and talk to us on Twitter daily.  You have been apart of our pregnancy journey for 9 months now and most of you are hoping and asking if we’ll be blogging when the baby is here.  (Yes, we will.)

I’ve had a very good and easy pregnancy.  Besides feeling so down & emotional earlier, there has only been one scare that comes to my mind in the past 9 months and that was when I was feeling a lot of pelvic pressure when I was about 28 weeks pregnant.  I put the call into my nurse and blogged about what was going on while waiting for her phone call.  Instead of driving myself crazy & looking up all that could be wrong, I listened to your advice and I felt calm.  Seriously.

You all helped me there & when the nurse called back, we figured out that it was just normal pressure and definitely not something to worry about.  But most of you had already told me that you thought the same thing.  Or been through the same thing before.

It’s just so comforting.

As T. mentioned in a comment previously, I prefer not to know the worst case scenario in anything, especially during pregnancy.  I have no idea why, but I am extremely sensitive to that kind of stuff.  T. is right, I will constantly ask him the same questions (sometimes with variations) over and over and over until I truly feel like that worst case scenario will not happen to me.

I lack a serious thinking pattern when it comes to mind over matter.  Sometimes I just fall victim to thinking the worst and let it drive me crazy.  I hate it, but that’s just how I am at times.

Obviously last night I was not scared about anything.  In fact, I felt great.  I was excited and thinking “this isn’t so bad”.  LOL.  I had a mixture of so many good feelings going on inside, so I guess that’s the reason why I felt so let down today.  I’m an emotional mess today, but when I think of why I am, it just doesn’t make sense.  Nothing bad happened.  In fact, even though I’m not holding my baby right now, my body was working towards that… and that’s a really good thing.

Why should I feel let down?  I guess I shouldn’t.  And I’m not going to dwell on that anymore.

Here’s some things I’ve learned so far:

1.  Our baby will come out when he is ready and we will be patiently (or trying to, at least) waiting for his arrival.  It’s on his terms, not ours.

2.  Even though nothing physical came out of yesterday’s contractions, something was happening in my body to get ready for labor.

3.  The bloody show can happen more than once and it’s perfectly normal, especially after having your membranes stripped.

4.  Many people go through what we went through last night.  Many get their hopes up too.  It’s just part of the excitement and I shouldn’t feel sad or upset by it.  It’s normal.

5.  I (we) have a ton of supporters out there who are rooting for us.

6.  The end of my pregnancy is the hardest part.  As you know, I haven’t really worried too much during my whole pregnancy.  I’ve been really calm and have gone on with my daily life as best as possible.  I didn’t worry about getting listeria because I ate lunch meat, or cooking the baby too much because I took a bath.  I just went along with it and did what felt best to me (of course asking my OB if I had questions).  But now that I’m at the end of my pregnancy, I find myself worrying about everything.

So many of you have told me to enjoy him being inside of my belly because the worries are nonstop when he is out.  While I don’t doubt that you know what you are talking about, I admit I find that hard to believe.  I think that having a window into my stomach so that I could see him would be so much easier than just wondering what’s going on in there.  Naturally I think that once he is here, the worrying will stop because I can see him.  I know that that is probably very naive of me to say, but I don’t know any better just yet.

7.  I have an amazing husband.  Seriously.  I am so lucky to have found my best friend and married him.  I feel so lucky to be his wife.  Just yesterday when we were walking around the neighborhood I told him how much he meant to me.  I told him thank you for answering my worst case scenario type of questions over and over without getting annoyed with me.  Most importantly I told him that he can reassure me and calm me down like no other.  Then I added that it was good that I trusted him.  LOL.  It’s true though.  He’s my rock.

If I’m scared, I go to him to make me feel safe.  If I’m excited, he’s the first one that I can’t wait to share the excited news with.  If I’m sad, he’s the one that can put the smile right back on my face.  In one word, he is amazing.  I know that word is overused, but it’s the only thing that comes close to what an awesome husband and life partner he is to me.  I only hope that I’m as good to him as he is to me.  I don’t know what I did to deserve someone so wonderful, but boy am I glad that he’s mine.

And thinking about him being a dad to our son… wow.  I can’t even go there right now because tears are streaming down my face (told you I’m emotional today).  I just know that he’ll be even more amazing & I will continue to fall deeper in love with him than I can even imagine.

Many of you have said that you’ve learned a lot from us over the past blog posts and I’m glad.  It’s nice that I’m learning from the experienced ones out there and the beginners are learning too.  The road to parenthood is a crazy one, but one that I’m excited to be on.  And I love that I’ll get to share it with you all.

So even though T. told y’all how much we appreciate everything, I just wanted it to come from my heart too.  You’ve made my first pregnancy journey a really great one & I’m so glad that you all find us interesting enough to keep coming back.  It means the world to us & I can’t wait to continue on with all of the happenings with our baby boy… whenever he decides to make his debut!

Thanks again!

Love,
Jane

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Pregnant Jane is rounding the corner and coming up to the big pregnancy week 38.  I’m more jumpy than I have ever been in my life!   I’m constantly thinking, “here we go – this is it!” many times throughout the day.  For example, the other day Jane said “ouch” after banging her foot or something on the coffee table.  I immediately ran in and asked, “Are you OK?” franticly.

There have been MANY times over the last couple of weeks baby Tarzan kicks pregnant Jane in the ribs or lower stomach while I’m with her.  It’s always followed by her jumping, grabbing her stomach, making a noise, or saying “whoa!” or “ouch!”.  When that happens while we’re driving I quickly look for a spot we can pull over while asking if she is OK.

Images of me having to deliver baby Tarzan on the side of a highway often fill my mind when those whoa’s and ouch’s happen in the car!

I feel like we’re getting CLOSE.  I can just feel it.

Jane is acting differently as well.  Normally I’m the one who is up late watching TV while she falls asleep on the couch.  I always have to wake her up to have her go to bed.  But lately, it’s the other way around.  For some reason she has a lot of energy at night.  And it’s VERY noticeable!  Pregnancy week 37 and the coming pregnancy week 38 is bringing out another new Pregnant Jane!

I have no idea where in the heck she is getting all of that energy from.  And I have no idea why I’m the one who is getting more tired at night.  Now thankfully Jane isn’t cleaning the floors or vacuuming at 3 AM, which I heard is a BIG sign that the baby is getting ready to celebrate his or her first birthday.

So pregnancy week 37 has been great.  Pregnant Jane has been in a great mood.  There were only 2-3 pregnancy induced hormone attacks on me, but they were short-lived and nothing… and I mean NOTHING compared to how early to mid pregnancy was.  I wouldn’t have survived nine months of that – I don’t think any man could!

And as for me, it’s a strange feeling.  I know I’m soon (very soon) going to become a father.  I guess I’m as ready as a father-to-be can be, although I’m not too sure what else I could do to prepare for fatherhood.  At least for me, it’s been more of a mental preparedness I’ve had to work on.  It’s not that I wasn’t a responsible person before, but just knowing I’m about to become a father has forever altered my decisions on all sorts of things.

From food shopping to purchasing anything.  I’m very different in that respect compared to how I was pre-pregnant Jane.  So ladies, if you are in the mood to go out to eat one night, maybe for Mexican food, and you ask your husband and he says not tonight, maybe he’s also going through this change… or maybe he’s also deathly afraid of pregnancy gas.  LOL!

But seriously, it’s getting harder and harder to concentrate on my work.  For instance, right now Jane is our running a few errands and I keep wanting to call her and check up on her… again.  And when she does all me, like she did a few minutes ago to ask me a question, when I saw it was her calling, I thought to myself, “Here we go, she’s calling me from the ambulance while she is giving birth to Baby Tarzan!”

This is crazy I tell ya.  Crazy.  In some ways, the way I feel reminds me of when I was little and I learned that my family was taking me to Disney World.  I remember I learned about it a good six months in advance.  And I also remember that the last few weeks felt like they were going in slow motion.  It was almost like time stood still for years as I waited for the day to arrive when we finally left to go to Disney.

Now it doesn’t feel like time is standing still (I wish it was so I could get caught up on some work!), but it’s that nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach that you feel when you are anxiously excited about something that is about to happen.  It’s like being in a room, awaiting for the guest of honor to show up for their surprise birthday party… and the person running hours late.  The whole time you’re on pins and needles.

It’s a wild feeling, really.  But in the same respect, here’s a strange thing about this whole pregnancy journey we’ve been documenting on our pregnancy blog here.  In some ways while it feels like it has taken forever, pregnant Jane and I are totally amazed on how FAST time has gone.  TOTALLY AMAZED!

Nearly nine months of pregnancy – BOOM! Gone in a flash.  Where did those nine months go?  The early days of Pregnant Jane throwing up all day and feeling horrible feel like that happened years ago because everything has all just gone by so fast.  Seriously – Jane’s pregnancy has zoomed by.  Sure, we had some big issues to battle and tough times to through to get where we are now, but it has all been worth the ride.  After all, if all roads were smooth and all journeys were uneventful in life, none of us would have anything to talk about.

And when our bouncing baby Tarzan is born, Jane’s pregnancy will all be but a distant memory, thankfully documented here, for the the three of us to look back on.  (Well, minus the posts where Jane or I talk about sex of course.  We’ll skip over those when we show Baby Tarzan this blog in 18 or so years. )

Now I can see why people say to enjoy each and every single second with your baby because they grow up so fast.  I can see why.  These nine months have flew by.  Another nine months from now Baby Tarzan could be walking around the house a little if he takes after me!  (I started walking really early!)

So the bottom line is this: do what you can to enjoy the months of pregnancy together.  They go by very, very fast.  Pregnant Jane and I thankfully took a lot of time out to spend a lot of time with each other – just the two of us thanks to comments on our blog from people like you.  In fact, if it wasn’t for all the feedback, comments, ideas, suggestions, and stories so many of you have provided us over the last nine months, I don’t know where we’d be…. I’d probably be in a small white room with padded walls and Jane would be sitting on the roof!

But seriously, thank you.  Thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts for taking this journey with us.

HOWEVER…. there’s still more to go – so the show isn’t over yet!

Now when the BIG day does come, I told Jane that she should post on her Twitter page with status updates.  We haven’t decided yet, but thought that would be cool to do.  Maybe I could bring my laptop and document play-by-play on mini blog posts and take pictures while we’re in the room (of course keeping Jane’s and my identity secret!).  And of course not taking pictures of the actual birth!! LOL  I know we always said we’d share everything about our pregnancy journey, but that one minor detail we may have to keep photo-free.

Oh, before I run, I almost forgot….

New His Boys Can Swim Mini-Blog Contest Launching Soon!

This contest will not be as big as our last contest that had over $1,600 in prizes and took nearly a week for Jane and I to put all together for everyone.  These will be a series of mini contests to make it fun and easier on everyone.

We have several GREAT prizes to give away that a few people have sent us to give away to you guys.  Stay tuned – we’re going to be launching a few contests within the next few days where you can win some really cool (and valuable) stuff!

One of them has to do with sex.  HUH!?!?  That’s all I can disclose right now!  And hey, don’t get all bashful… if it wasn’t for that, none of us would be here right now – literally!  LOL

Tarzan

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Pregnant Jane’s 35 weeks pregnant belly picture is on the left and it has been added to Jane’s pregnancy week-by-week belly pictures page.  From a father-to-be perspective, everything is going really smooth lately.  Really smooth!  Dare I say this… but I believe Pregnant Jane’s pregnancy hormones are not acting up like they were a week or two ago.  Or a month or two ago… or months and months ago…

It’s great to see my beautiful little 35 week pregnant wife back to her normal self.  Well, minus a few things here and there such as:

1. Help, I’m pregnant… and I can’t get up! When Jane decided to sit on the floor to watch TV, she needs me to help her up.

2. The ultimate “Pregnant woman trap”! If you have a large beanbag, have your pregnant wife sit in it.  (Especially when she has a beautiful 35 weeks pregnant belly!)  Once she sits down, she’s down for the count! There’s no way she can get up.  A couple of weeks ago Pregnant Jane sat on our large beanbag to watch a movie while I worked in my office.  Every 20-30 minutes I received a text message that she needed help up so she could run to the bathroom.  Lesson learned.

3. The “you just never know when” bladder! No matter where we drive to, I always have to map out the route in my head to ensure that there will be nice clean bathrooms on the way so Jane can make pit stops.  Little Tarzan must know when we’re in the car because it never fails… as we’re driving he decides to push and poke Jane’s bladder making her want to pee all the time.

4. The “you’re the sweetest husband ever” phase! This one is GREAT!  Pregnant Jane’s hormones must have switched gears a little because all the little things I do to help my beautiful pregnant wife get noticed and are greatly appreciated.  I love it!  From getting her a cup of water, helping put something away, you name it!  She’s more mushy, huggy, lovey dovey, and sweet to me.  Compared to how the pregnancy hormones effected her before, pregnancy weeks 34 and 35 have been a breeze!  So fellow father-to-be’s, there REALLY is light at the tunnel.  The hormones REALLY will subside.  She REALLY will go back to normal and those pregnancy monster hormones will be all but a distant memory (we hope!).

5. At Pregnancy week 35, the Pregnant Brain continues to kick in! This is something that has not gone away and Jane’s pregnant brain is still running in high gear.  It’s all good though.  It has provided us with hours of laughter over the past 8 months of pregnancy.  From forgetting things to mixing up words, you just never know what to expect now-a-days!

6. Pregnancy emotions continue to make it rain! Thankfully the monster hormones have subsided, but Pregnant Jane is still very emotional.  She’ll still cry over all sorts of things on TV or when she hears the song that the thing hanging over baby Tarzan’s crib plays.  (I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s a song that you always hear those things play.)

7. The mom-to-be non-stop worry engine is always running! Pregnant Jane worries a lot.  It’s not a bad worry, it’s what I call a “mom worry”.  It’s amazing to see my little Pregnant Jane transform into a mother right before my eyes.  They say you never stop worrying about your child from the moment he or she is born.  I think that should be changed to: you never stop worrying about your baby from the moment you hear his or her heartbeat for the very first time.  The excess worry isn’t a big deal though, it’s a good thing.  Heck, I admit that I have also become a little more worried, or shall I say I’m more aware of things that I never thought about before.  From sharp corners on our end table, to how fast I’m driving, to safety in general, to just about everything.  So it’s not just Jane that has changed a little in this category, I plead guilty to the same charge.

8. The Pregnancy Gas continues! When will it ever stop!?  Somebody help me!  Thankfully, they are not as bad as they used to be.  Well… sometimes… there have been some deadly silent attacks I’ve walked through over the last few days that I’m still recovering from.  See the previous post about the wonderful journey of pregnancy gas.

It’s Official!  35 Weeks Pregnant, And We’re Packing Our Bags!

It’s crazy to think we’re already in pregnancy week 35.  Seriously!  Time is flying by faster than I can keep track of it.  And speaking of time, Jane and I decided last night that today is the day that we pack our overnight bags and spend some time planning everything out.

I’ll just toss some shirts, boxes, shorts, and my toiletry bag in a bag and I’m good to go.  I have no idea how much stuff Pregnant Jane will want to bring to the hospital.  I think I may have to dig out our BIG suitcase just in case.  So we’ll get the bags ready and put them by the door and have them 95% packed and ready to grab when the time comes.

Also, I’m going to pack the car with some towels and a couple of large garbage bags.  Why?  Just in case Jane’s water breaks while we’re driving somewhere or to put down if her water breaks somewhere else to put down on the seat on the way to the hospital.  This is something I maybe should have done before Jane became 35 weeks pregnant, but hey, at least I’m remembering to do it now!

We’re also going to make some copies of our house key and give it to a couple of friends and family in case we’re not home when it’s time and need to ask our neighbors to come and take care of things, turn off lights, or whatever we may need.

Besides that, I think we have everything pretty much under control.  Like I said, I think.  :)  One thing that I need to remember to do is bring my computer so I can post blog updates while Jane and I are hanging out in her room.  We’ll bring Jane’s so she can Twitter about everything.  Now I have a feeling that she will not be Twittering while she is giving birth to baby Tarzan… and I have a feeling that I won’t be blogging while he’s being born, but we’ll do the best we can to keep everyone updated before and after baby Tarzan is born.

And last but not least…. Who wants to win a….

$100 JC Penney Baby Registry Gift Certificate!?

We will be launching a contest within the next day or two where you can win a $100 JC Penney Gift Certificate that you can use to purchase items from your JC Penney baby registry.  The contest will be launching soon and the details will be announced on this pregnancy blog and on Twitter .

- Tarzan

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