I barely have the time to update for now, so you can all yell and tell me how much of a slacker I am another time.
Okay, sooooooooooo...WE HAVE CLOTH DIAPERS! Woo. Sorry, I had to do that. I'm so happy. Bella looks so cute with a big fluffy butt. I promise I will post pictures...eventually. As of right now, I am still being a total loser and trying to get caught up on stupid stuff...like sleep, eating, and trying to get the house to look like it no longer belongs on an episode of Hoarders. Responsibility sucks.
Well, obviously we made it back to Jersey. The trip was really long, especially the second day of it, but we made it back last sunday night (well, okay, Monday morning at 1am) and have been trying to play catch up since. Definitely not fun...and I've barely made any progress. Its been a week and I'm still trying to unpack everything!! [I'd just like to add that I blame this on teething, though. My formerly good sleeper has been up countless times at night lately. Last night was probably one of the worst...ever. She was up about every 15-20 minutes. I didn't get any kind of decent sleep. Needless to say, I'm tired...and updating my blog sounded like a better option than cleaning Bella's nursery (again). haha]
Okay updates...
For those that don't know, my little sister is pregnant...with twins...and they're pretty sure they're both girls!!! (The tech wasn't 100% sure but they said they both LOOKED like girls.) Woo! I guess I know where all of Bella's old clothes are going. haha
Our neighbors moved. I'm not exactly heartbroken about this. Up until I had Bella, I didn't even know they spoke English (I swear this is not being racist, I had only ever heard them speak Spanish, so I didn't know). However, I am definitely excited to see who moves in next. I'm hoping its a younger couple...I'd love to be able to make friends. Knowing my luck, though, it'll be one of Travis's exes or something. FML
We don't have an extra person living in the house (yet) like I thought we were going to when we got back. It turns out the Travis's sister just had her ex gf staying here for a few days or something while we were gone. I say that she's not living here yet, because she's coming over tomorrow to "stay for a few days" again. Last time we were told that, a few days turned into three months... I'd be a lot more irritated by this if it wasn't the girl that I get along with. I met her when their mom was sick and she and I get along really well.
Total sidenote, but Bella is currently sitting beside me just laughing and talking to herself. She hasn't been like this in FOREVER. I love it!
Okay, uhm...lets see...what else??
Oh yeah! I lost two pounds!! I actually think it was a mix of lighter clothing and the scale sitting funny, but damnit I'll take whatever I can get. I found a picture of myself in a bikini from summer 2008 (pre-baby) and it was seriously depressing. I can't believe I used to think I needed to lose weight. I miss that body. I don't think its ever coming back. Excuse me while I take a moment of silence for my old body...may it rest in peace.
Bella has learned to rip the rattle off of her bouncy seat and throw it at me. Its cute for a little while, eventually I get really sick of putting it back.
Uhm....okay I can't think of anything else right now, but I know there is more. I'll update more later if I get the chance. Right now I have to go tend to the monster, who apparently just realized she wasn't being fussy enough.
January 18, 2010
January 7, 2010
I am not a religious woman...
But I'm going to be calling on every deity EVER to keep me from losing my damn mind and hurting someone.
I'll give details later, but just know that if I stop posting for...say...25 to life...I might have snapped. And send bail money...K?
I'll give details later, but just know that if I stop posting for...say...25 to life...I might have snapped. And send bail money...K?
January 3, 2010
Unpopular Opinions and Confessions
Warning, this post contains way too much information for some people...but then again, if you're reading my blog, you probably aren't easily offended. ;)
1. I fell asleep during sex on New Years Eve...I finished before Travis and I fell asleep three times while I waited for him to finish.
2. I'm still afraid of the upstairs hallway in my parents house. It creeps me out. I can't walk down it without the light on.
3. There is one reason and on reason only that I am looking forward to going back to Jersey (yeah, I can't believe the last nine words of that sentence ever crossed my mind). I want to get the mail because my cloth diapers should be there!!
4. I got one of those tummy hider tucker-inner things for New Years Eve. I don't even know what they are called but I couldn't stand how I looked with the damn spare tire hanging over my pants, and the thing REALLY worked. I may end up wearing it on a daily basis, just to make myself feel better.
5. One of Travis's friends has made us a couple things for Bella. Some of them are absolutely adorable and some of them are...not. I'm always so thankful for gifts, but there's been a couple times that I've looked at the not-so-cute stuff and wondered wtf she was thinking.
6. I get REALLY bothered by how much sleep Travis gets sometimes. He falls asleep before me at night. I'm the one who wakes up with Bella at night because he doesn't hear her and I have to wake him up if I want him to go get her. He wakes up after me in the morning. And lately he's been taking naps that last up to six hours during the day. It bothers the hell out of me. I need sleep too. I love him and I know he does so much for us, but damnit I am so exhausted that I've been so tempted to put the pillow over his face a couple times.
7. I think its irresponsible for people to drink very often around their children. I've seen a lot of families that have a couple beers or cocktails at every meal or gathering and it makes their children think that its no big deal, so they start drinking really early. Its one thing to have a drink every once in awhile with a nice meal or something, but I think it happens too often with some families.
8. I don't understand why some people freak out about getting their child on a schedule. I understand that it makes thing easier, but it seems cruel to try to make a baby stick to a schedule. They'll be on someone else's schedule for the rest of their lives...let them set their own for at least a little while.
9. I have a lot more...but I can't remember them. I'm really sidetracked by waiting for Travis to get home right now.
1. I fell asleep during sex on New Years Eve...I finished before Travis and I fell asleep three times while I waited for him to finish.
2. I'm still afraid of the upstairs hallway in my parents house. It creeps me out. I can't walk down it without the light on.
3. There is one reason and on reason only that I am looking forward to going back to Jersey (yeah, I can't believe the last nine words of that sentence ever crossed my mind). I want to get the mail because my cloth diapers should be there!!
4. I got one of those tummy hider tucker-inner things for New Years Eve. I don't even know what they are called but I couldn't stand how I looked with the damn spare tire hanging over my pants, and the thing REALLY worked. I may end up wearing it on a daily basis, just to make myself feel better.
5. One of Travis's friends has made us a couple things for Bella. Some of them are absolutely adorable and some of them are...not. I'm always so thankful for gifts, but there's been a couple times that I've looked at the not-so-cute stuff and wondered wtf she was thinking.
6. I get REALLY bothered by how much sleep Travis gets sometimes. He falls asleep before me at night. I'm the one who wakes up with Bella at night because he doesn't hear her and I have to wake him up if I want him to go get her. He wakes up after me in the morning. And lately he's been taking naps that last up to six hours during the day. It bothers the hell out of me. I need sleep too. I love him and I know he does so much for us, but damnit I am so exhausted that I've been so tempted to put the pillow over his face a couple times.
7. I think its irresponsible for people to drink very often around their children. I've seen a lot of families that have a couple beers or cocktails at every meal or gathering and it makes their children think that its no big deal, so they start drinking really early. Its one thing to have a drink every once in awhile with a nice meal or something, but I think it happens too often with some families.
8. I don't understand why some people freak out about getting their child on a schedule. I understand that it makes thing easier, but it seems cruel to try to make a baby stick to a schedule. They'll be on someone else's schedule for the rest of their lives...let them set their own for at least a little while.
9. I have a lot more...but I can't remember them. I'm really sidetracked by waiting for Travis to get home right now.
January 2, 2010
I know I need to update...
But things have been absolutely crazy lately. I swear I will update with new pics of Bella (because they're definitely needed), my unpop confessions (which I'm late with this week), and more of my general ramblings about new years and all that fun stuff.
I promise I will soon.
Promise.
Hopefully.
I promise I will soon.
Promise.
Hopefully.
December 30, 2009
Its too damn cold here...
Seriously. This house is way too damn cold for me. I'm such a wuss.
Maybe that's why we've gotten somewhere between fifteen and twenty blankets for Bella for Christmas.
Maybe that's why we've gotten somewhere between fifteen and twenty blankets for Bella for Christmas.
One last post for the night...
I just want to formally appologize ahead of time to anyone who reads my last post...I blame excedrin and mountain dew. I'm probably a little too hyper right now...but I do REALLY need to go to bed. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for any headache, cramping, or mental blindness that may occur from reading it.
Seriously this time...Good night!
Seriously this time...Good night!
Year in Review
So, 2009 is coming to a close and I think it's about time to write a year in review. I has been a pretty big year.
Well, we found out I was pregnant on New Years of 2009. The test was so faint (and, I'll admit it, I was kind of in denial) and I wanted to be 110% positive, so I took a second (okay, a fifth) test on Jan 2nd. It was a digital and there was NO denying the word "POSITIVE" that was staring me in the face.
I'll admit...I cried. I was scared shitless. Travis on the other hand was bouncing (and I mean literally bouncing like a kid on caffeine) around the apartment. He was giddy and I was a wreck. We were already preparing for our move and I was trying to wrap my head around moving away from Kansas for the first time in my life, and the thought of having a small person starting to grow inside of me was too much for my brain to handle at the time. Luckily I called my family and they were so supportive from the start.
Two weeks later (Jan 15th) we were packed and on the road to New Jersey. It was my first long road trip and I'm proud to say that I handled it much better than I expected. I think the one thing that helped more than anything was having friends and family that were willing to spend hours on the phone (don't worry I had a bluetooth thingy) keeping me awake and entertained. It took three days (we took breaks...we were in seperate vehicles and I could not have made that drive without taking breaks) and when we got in it was about midnight out there. We were exhausted from the trip and brought in only what we absolutely needed (and the cat...she wasn't a fan of the car ride). We knew all along that we'd be staying in the basement but it would have been nice if someone would have thought to at least clear a spot on the floor for us to put the air mattress. It was probably below freezing in the basement that night (no, not exagerating, we had an air mattress that slowly deflated throughout the night on a concrete floor) and it was miserable. I think I MIGHT have gotten about an hour of sleep that night. Not the best experience of my life, but I lived. :P
Things were rough to start after the move...
Okay that's a bit of an understatement...and possibily sugarcoated a little. Okay a lot.
It was hell. There was constant drama with Travis's sister, there was issues with finances because neither of us could find work out there (yeah, big A+ to moving to a state that the recession hit headon like a fucking train), and I didn't know anyone other than Travis's friends and family, so the stress of being pregnant and being in a new place was awful.
About mid-February we finally told Travis's family that I was pregnant. It didn't go over so well. As a matter of fact, most of his family made me feel awful, like I was supposed to "take it back". The whole ordeal still bothers me. His grandmother actually walked out of the room saying "No..No..Not yet. No." Ugh. Pisses me off.
The usual drama persisted throughout Spring. I missed my father's 50th birthday and my little sister's graduation (they were within a week of each other) because we were stuck in Jersey waiting to hear back from a 'family friend' about a job for Travis. He had turned down a job that I had a chance to work with him because he was supposed to be making more on his own than we would've made together. Well, the guy had work for him for a grand total of about 30 hours over the course of three weeks...and then he just stopped calling. And because Travis didn't want to disappoint his family and upset this family friend we sat and waited and waited and waited for him to fucking call. Two weeks later he finally called and said that he just didn't have enough work and that he had to let Travis go. Fucking ass.
Okay...Wooo Saaawwwwww. This is getting me a little heated. I'll try to calm down.
Moving on.
In early June I discovered theBump and found at least a little sanity. I finally had people to talk about my pregnancy with. By that point the initial excitement of me being pregnant had worn off for Travis and he was starting to get stressed out and was sick of hearing about it. He won't admit it, but I know it's true.
Also in June we took a road trip up to Maine for Travis's friend's wedding. It was so beautiful up there. If I'm ever rich, I will own a house up in the mountains in Maine to visit in the summertime (because I'm a wuss when it comes to winter). Absolutely gorgeous. Its been almost seventh months since then and I am still dumbfounded by how amazing the landscape was up there. I can't wait to go back, even if its just for a visit.
On July 4th we flew out to Kansas to visit my family (FINALLY). It was a tiny ass plane but by far the easiest flight I've ever been on. The airports were EMPTY. Flying while all fat and stuff was interesting...people in the airport were definitely nicer to me when I was pregnant.
The visit to KS was nice but while we were here we got a phone call from one of Travis's friends. She was informing us that Travis's sister's girlfriend had got a kitten, but found out her mother was "deathly allergic" and they couldn't keep it at their house, so it would be staying with us. o.O I bit my tongue for a little while but on the trip back to the airport I was venting to my parents (we both were, honestly...Travis wasn't too happy about it either) and I brought up that her girlfriend had already told us that her mother was allergic to cats and that's why she couldn't have a cat.
Okay...(Deep breath)
Well, we got back alright and "met" the kitten. It was cute, but Travis brought it up to his sister that he 'thought he remembered' her girlfriend mentioning that her mom was allergic to cats in the past. His sister merely responded with "yeah, but she wanted one". Again..o.O Apparently in New Jersey you get what you want...screw everyone else.
Annnnnnyway. Again I bit my tongue because at that point there was absolutely no talking to anyone. I knew if I had said anything it'd start a fight...and I was trying to avoid having to deal with any extra drama. Well, the extra drama came anyway because Travis asked what the kittens name was.... Oh yeah, this is where it gets good. Bella. The name we had told EVERYONE that we were using when we found out we were having a girl (which, by the way, was in May). As a matter of fact, we had told everyone our name choices from the start. It was Isabella Reese (Bella for short) for a girl, and Jace (probably J for short) Xavier for a boy.
Yep, I was livid but again, I kept my mouth shut until I could talk to Travis privately...which happened later that night. I told him that yes it pissed me off and he needed to talk to her. So he did.
That's when World War III started.
He went upstairs to talk to her and said that things went "alright" but we stepped outside to get some fresh air because A- I was still (more than) a little homicidal and B- the basement always smelled funky. When we were coming back in we could hear her upstairs on the phone crying and yelling about us. I'm going to use direct quotes here because this shit REALLY pissed me off. We heard the following, word for word (because it pissed me off that much that I remember it all word for word): "They're ruining everything. They're trying to take the best part of my life away." (Seriously? I kitten is the best part of your life?) "I'm sick of them. They don't do anything around the house. I have to do everything and they're just trying to make me miserable. The only reason they're here is because she got pregnant and they didn't have anywhere else to go."
...Okay, to understand why I was ready to march up the stairs and break her neck, I'll explain something. The ONLY reason we moved to New Jersey was because Travis's mother died and his family was putting a huge guilt trip on him to move out and help take care of the estate and HIS SISTER. I had an apartment that I was perfectly happy with. Travis was in the military but had to get out because they "really needed" him there and the stress they were putting on him was causing serious issues for him (not sleeping, severe depression, etc). Had his family not pushed him to think that he HAD to move back to take care of everything, we would still be (VERY) happily living in Kansas.
So, anyway, upon hearing all that, Travis told her to come downstairs to talk. I went down to the basement because I'm about 983% sure I would have outright killed her on the spot had I had to look at her at that moment. It took her three hours of calling her friends and telling them she was afraid to go downstairs because Travis "might have overheard" her. Eventually she did and they talked and agreed that it wasn't going to work out and that they were going to sell the house.
All fine and peachy, right?
Shit I wish. A few days later they had a 'family meeting' to discuss it all (and to discuss the new bill arrangement because until that point their mother's boyfriend was still living with us and he was getting ready to move out then anyhow). It was a total drama fest. They talked about it and she made this big deal about how we never did anything (yeah, I might add that we were the ONLY ones that did ANYTHING in the house...and we were also expected to buy ALL of the groceries...eventhough we were broke and trying to prepare for a baby) and she just couldn't live with us anymore. She said that "no matter what" she'd be moving out no later than the end of September (remember this, it'll come into play later).
Everything was discussed and "settled" (they decided to sell and started talking about who would be interested and all that crap). I also want to mention that during this discussion she mentioned that when she moved out she would be moving in with their grandparents. She never asked her grandparents about this, she just told them that she'd move in with them.
They also discussed the fact that they'd need to divide up the estate. Ooo yeah, more drama. She freaked out about the couches. There are two loveseat/couches that actually belonged to their mother's boyfriend. He had told us that he wanted us to have them because Travis's sister had already informed everyone that she was taking their mother's bedroom set. (Yes, informed...she never thought it was necessary to ask or discuss it with anyone. She just told us one day that she was taking them.) Well, when Travis mentioned that we were supposed to get them his sister started throwing a tantrum (and trust me, I do mean tantrum in every aspect of the word). She was literally throwing things (her phone, a glass, anything around her) and tried forcing her way past their grandmother to storm out of the room because SHE wasn't getting what SHE wanted. She did everything but outright say that she thought she deserved everything in the house because Travis had actually moved out and gotten a job and gotten some of his own stuff (mind you, he was military so most of the stuff he got was salvaged from people moving out of the barracks).
Woooosaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Alright, I'm getting heated a bit, so instead of ranting more and more about this (too late, I know) I'll just go ahead and say that they re-divided the bills that night as well and instead of it being split three ways, which would have been fair (right?...right?) they split them up so we were paying three times as much as his sister. And eventhough we were paying so much more, they refused to drop some bills that we didn't need (because the HD TV was moving out with their mom's boyfriend and we didn't exactly need to pay out the ass for all the HD channels...or did we? Hell...I guess 'do we' would be more appropriate since we still do) because his sister didn't want to change anything. Can't blame her, she wasn't paying for them.
Okay...I know, deep breath. Enough about that day. It was a train wreck. But I was definitely excited at the prospect of her moving out.
Anyhow, early August came and our 'roommate' moved out. This meant that Travis and I finally got to move out of the un-heated/un-airconditioned/moldy/noisy/disaster basement. We were actually going to have a bedroom that didn't require me to climb a flight of crappy stairs everytime I woke up in the middle of the night to pee. We had our issues with that. Travis was expected to take apart the entire bedroom set that was in the room we were moving into, and move it upstairs for his sister...Of course that was after he took apart the entire set that was upstairs in her room and moved it outside to the garage. Because, really, she can't be expected to do anything for herself...right?
During this move we also cleaned out the "back room" which was the laundry room and the bedroom that we were moving in to. And yes I mean DEEP cleaned. We were washing walls, vacuuming three or four times, changing blinds, shampooing carpets (because the kitten had been living in the back room and apparently it had diarrea and had shit all over the floors and the entire room smelled so awful that I had to leave the windows open for weeks to air it out...yeah I forgot that part...way to leave the kitten in the room that was going to be for the BABY...the baby she tried stealing the name from!), and dusting every surface we could find (I swiffered the ceiling). We moved everything out of the back room (including the washer and dryer that had to be up there because their mom had MD and was not able to go up and down stairs to do laundry) and started moving our stuff into the bedroom.
It was amazing. We FINALLY had air conditioning. I'm pretty sure Travis was much happier with the air conditioning than he led on...because, well, have you ever smelled a pregnant woman in August without it? I think you get my drift.
Shortly after that whole ordeal, I found out that my insurance had dropped me. That was a whole new headache to deal with. My only option was to get on Medicaid. It was a hassle but I finally got it all worked out, got my paperwork and started calling around to find a new OB (because of course I went to one that didn't accept Medicaid).
NO ONE would take me. I was seriously starting to think I was going to have to hire a bum off the street to deliver my baby. Everyone I talked to said I was 'way too far along' for them to take me on as a patient. It was a nightmare. I was in tears, calling hundreds of doctors, just trying to find someone to help. Finally I found out that there was a hospital in the area that had a helpline to try to match people with doctors. The first woman I talked to was either on the rag or had a telephone pole shoved up her ass because she told me that the service was only for people that were 'not capable of making the phone calls for themselves' and hung up on me. It wasn't. I had been transferred there from the L&D operator (who was a sweetheart, by the way). So, I called her back to ask her again and she re-transferred me and made sure I was talking to someone who would help. I finally got set up with an appointment to see the intake lady at a local family practice two days later.
They sped me through the system to get me set up for my appointments (because at that point I was 37 weeks pregnant and HAD to figure shit out) and I got set up for an appointment. The doctor wanted to check growth and send me for an ultrasound.
Great right?
Well, okay, it kind of was because I got to see the little monkey, but it set me up for minor heart failure. Bella was measuring at almost nine pounds at 37 weeks. I went to my next appointment which was only a few days after the ultrasound and they told me I was a high risk for a C-Section because of how big she was measuring. That started the NST/US checkups. The next checkup said I wasn't measuring quite as big, but they still wanted to schedule an induction so she didn't get too big. They were not going to let me go past my due date. Definitely music to my ears (because hell yes I was done with being pregnant...they could've told me I was being induced right that minute and I probably would've kissed the damn doctor).
Induction was schedule for Sept 12th but on the night of the 8th I started hurting. It wasn't cramping like I had always expected, it was a shooting pain down my right leg and it felt like someone had just stabbed me in the gut. I dealt with it for awhile but at about 3am on the 9th I tried calling L&D. No one answered. I waited another half hour and said fuck it and we went in. I remember telling the nurses "Uhm, I don't think I'm in labor, but it really hurts". They hooked me up to the monitors and told me I was there for the long haul.
Since I'm about 95% sure I've already posted my birth story, I won't go into all the details again (if not, its not a pretty story and I won't bore you all with another long winded ramble just yet) but Bella was born on 09/09/09!
My parents came out to visit and stayed for two days (not NEARLY long enough). It was great. I loved getting to see them and i was so glad that they got to see Bella so soon. It was fun too because eventhough I was totally miserable and sore as hell, we took them out to both the Atlantic City and Ocean City boardwalks. Bella got to see the ocean (through the little plastic part on the hood that covered her carseat/stroller) when she was only 4 days old!
The first night we had Bella home the power went out for a couple hours (i think it was off for two). Travis and I were both losing our minds. We were using tea lights for light and ended up having to change our first dirty diaper at home in the dark. Of course as soon as we got the diaper fastened (and I mean immediately when we fastened it) the lights came back on. So much fun.
Well...the end of September came and went (remember what was supposed to happen then?) with nothing exciting happening. My birthday was uneventful and we kicked off the beginning of October with Travis's equally uneventful birthday. I felt awful that I couldn't do anything special for him, but I was still a total mess at that point.
In mid-october his sister's girlfriend moved in. By thanksgiving she had finally told their family and they were (thankfully) splitting bills evenly between the four of us. By then things were FINALLY starting to get a little better around the house (although I still have fantasies about what it'd be like to have our own place again).
Things were pretty uneventful after that. Up until our trip out here to Kansas, that is. But you can all read about that in the other long-ass post below. For now I am thinking that it's about time to wrap up. It's 1:30, Bella's been asleep for a couple hours now, and I have to be up early tomorrow. If you're read through all of this, please come here and slap me...just don't wake me up to do it.
Night night.
Well, we found out I was pregnant on New Years of 2009. The test was so faint (and, I'll admit it, I was kind of in denial) and I wanted to be 110% positive, so I took a second (okay, a fifth) test on Jan 2nd. It was a digital and there was NO denying the word "POSITIVE" that was staring me in the face.
I'll admit...I cried. I was scared shitless. Travis on the other hand was bouncing (and I mean literally bouncing like a kid on caffeine) around the apartment. He was giddy and I was a wreck. We were already preparing for our move and I was trying to wrap my head around moving away from Kansas for the first time in my life, and the thought of having a small person starting to grow inside of me was too much for my brain to handle at the time. Luckily I called my family and they were so supportive from the start.
Two weeks later (Jan 15th) we were packed and on the road to New Jersey. It was my first long road trip and I'm proud to say that I handled it much better than I expected. I think the one thing that helped more than anything was having friends and family that were willing to spend hours on the phone (don't worry I had a bluetooth thingy) keeping me awake and entertained. It took three days (we took breaks...we were in seperate vehicles and I could not have made that drive without taking breaks) and when we got in it was about midnight out there. We were exhausted from the trip and brought in only what we absolutely needed (and the cat...she wasn't a fan of the car ride). We knew all along that we'd be staying in the basement but it would have been nice if someone would have thought to at least clear a spot on the floor for us to put the air mattress. It was probably below freezing in the basement that night (no, not exagerating, we had an air mattress that slowly deflated throughout the night on a concrete floor) and it was miserable. I think I MIGHT have gotten about an hour of sleep that night. Not the best experience of my life, but I lived. :P
Things were rough to start after the move...
Okay that's a bit of an understatement...and possibily sugarcoated a little. Okay a lot.
It was hell. There was constant drama with Travis's sister, there was issues with finances because neither of us could find work out there (yeah, big A+ to moving to a state that the recession hit headon like a fucking train), and I didn't know anyone other than Travis's friends and family, so the stress of being pregnant and being in a new place was awful.
About mid-February we finally told Travis's family that I was pregnant. It didn't go over so well. As a matter of fact, most of his family made me feel awful, like I was supposed to "take it back". The whole ordeal still bothers me. His grandmother actually walked out of the room saying "No..No..Not yet. No." Ugh. Pisses me off.
The usual drama persisted throughout Spring. I missed my father's 50th birthday and my little sister's graduation (they were within a week of each other) because we were stuck in Jersey waiting to hear back from a 'family friend' about a job for Travis. He had turned down a job that I had a chance to work with him because he was supposed to be making more on his own than we would've made together. Well, the guy had work for him for a grand total of about 30 hours over the course of three weeks...and then he just stopped calling. And because Travis didn't want to disappoint his family and upset this family friend we sat and waited and waited and waited for him to fucking call. Two weeks later he finally called and said that he just didn't have enough work and that he had to let Travis go. Fucking ass.
Okay...Wooo Saaawwwwww. This is getting me a little heated. I'll try to calm down.
Moving on.
In early June I discovered theBump and found at least a little sanity. I finally had people to talk about my pregnancy with. By that point the initial excitement of me being pregnant had worn off for Travis and he was starting to get stressed out and was sick of hearing about it. He won't admit it, but I know it's true.
Also in June we took a road trip up to Maine for Travis's friend's wedding. It was so beautiful up there. If I'm ever rich, I will own a house up in the mountains in Maine to visit in the summertime (because I'm a wuss when it comes to winter). Absolutely gorgeous. Its been almost seventh months since then and I am still dumbfounded by how amazing the landscape was up there. I can't wait to go back, even if its just for a visit.
On July 4th we flew out to Kansas to visit my family (FINALLY). It was a tiny ass plane but by far the easiest flight I've ever been on. The airports were EMPTY. Flying while all fat and stuff was interesting...people in the airport were definitely nicer to me when I was pregnant.
The visit to KS was nice but while we were here we got a phone call from one of Travis's friends. She was informing us that Travis's sister's girlfriend had got a kitten, but found out her mother was "deathly allergic" and they couldn't keep it at their house, so it would be staying with us. o.O I bit my tongue for a little while but on the trip back to the airport I was venting to my parents (we both were, honestly...Travis wasn't too happy about it either) and I brought up that her girlfriend had already told us that her mother was allergic to cats and that's why she couldn't have a cat.
Okay...(Deep breath)
Well, we got back alright and "met" the kitten. It was cute, but Travis brought it up to his sister that he 'thought he remembered' her girlfriend mentioning that her mom was allergic to cats in the past. His sister merely responded with "yeah, but she wanted one". Again..o.O Apparently in New Jersey you get what you want...screw everyone else.
Annnnnnyway. Again I bit my tongue because at that point there was absolutely no talking to anyone. I knew if I had said anything it'd start a fight...and I was trying to avoid having to deal with any extra drama. Well, the extra drama came anyway because Travis asked what the kittens name was.... Oh yeah, this is where it gets good. Bella. The name we had told EVERYONE that we were using when we found out we were having a girl (which, by the way, was in May). As a matter of fact, we had told everyone our name choices from the start. It was Isabella Reese (Bella for short) for a girl, and Jace (probably J for short) Xavier for a boy.
Yep, I was livid but again, I kept my mouth shut until I could talk to Travis privately...which happened later that night. I told him that yes it pissed me off and he needed to talk to her. So he did.
That's when World War III started.
He went upstairs to talk to her and said that things went "alright" but we stepped outside to get some fresh air because A- I was still (more than) a little homicidal and B- the basement always smelled funky. When we were coming back in we could hear her upstairs on the phone crying and yelling about us. I'm going to use direct quotes here because this shit REALLY pissed me off. We heard the following, word for word (because it pissed me off that much that I remember it all word for word): "They're ruining everything. They're trying to take the best part of my life away." (Seriously? I kitten is the best part of your life?) "I'm sick of them. They don't do anything around the house. I have to do everything and they're just trying to make me miserable. The only reason they're here is because she got pregnant and they didn't have anywhere else to go."
...Okay, to understand why I was ready to march up the stairs and break her neck, I'll explain something. The ONLY reason we moved to New Jersey was because Travis's mother died and his family was putting a huge guilt trip on him to move out and help take care of the estate and HIS SISTER. I had an apartment that I was perfectly happy with. Travis was in the military but had to get out because they "really needed" him there and the stress they were putting on him was causing serious issues for him (not sleeping, severe depression, etc). Had his family not pushed him to think that he HAD to move back to take care of everything, we would still be (VERY) happily living in Kansas.
So, anyway, upon hearing all that, Travis told her to come downstairs to talk. I went down to the basement because I'm about 983% sure I would have outright killed her on the spot had I had to look at her at that moment. It took her three hours of calling her friends and telling them she was afraid to go downstairs because Travis "might have overheard" her. Eventually she did and they talked and agreed that it wasn't going to work out and that they were going to sell the house.
All fine and peachy, right?
Shit I wish. A few days later they had a 'family meeting' to discuss it all (and to discuss the new bill arrangement because until that point their mother's boyfriend was still living with us and he was getting ready to move out then anyhow). It was a total drama fest. They talked about it and she made this big deal about how we never did anything (yeah, I might add that we were the ONLY ones that did ANYTHING in the house...and we were also expected to buy ALL of the groceries...eventhough we were broke and trying to prepare for a baby) and she just couldn't live with us anymore. She said that "no matter what" she'd be moving out no later than the end of September (remember this, it'll come into play later).
Everything was discussed and "settled" (they decided to sell and started talking about who would be interested and all that crap). I also want to mention that during this discussion she mentioned that when she moved out she would be moving in with their grandparents. She never asked her grandparents about this, she just told them that she'd move in with them.
They also discussed the fact that they'd need to divide up the estate. Ooo yeah, more drama. She freaked out about the couches. There are two loveseat/couches that actually belonged to their mother's boyfriend. He had told us that he wanted us to have them because Travis's sister had already informed everyone that she was taking their mother's bedroom set. (Yes, informed...she never thought it was necessary to ask or discuss it with anyone. She just told us one day that she was taking them.) Well, when Travis mentioned that we were supposed to get them his sister started throwing a tantrum (and trust me, I do mean tantrum in every aspect of the word). She was literally throwing things (her phone, a glass, anything around her) and tried forcing her way past their grandmother to storm out of the room because SHE wasn't getting what SHE wanted. She did everything but outright say that she thought she deserved everything in the house because Travis had actually moved out and gotten a job and gotten some of his own stuff (mind you, he was military so most of the stuff he got was salvaged from people moving out of the barracks).
Woooosaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Alright, I'm getting heated a bit, so instead of ranting more and more about this (too late, I know) I'll just go ahead and say that they re-divided the bills that night as well and instead of it being split three ways, which would have been fair (right?...right?) they split them up so we were paying three times as much as his sister. And eventhough we were paying so much more, they refused to drop some bills that we didn't need (because the HD TV was moving out with their mom's boyfriend and we didn't exactly need to pay out the ass for all the HD channels...or did we? Hell...I guess 'do we' would be more appropriate since we still do) because his sister didn't want to change anything. Can't blame her, she wasn't paying for them.
Okay...I know, deep breath. Enough about that day. It was a train wreck. But I was definitely excited at the prospect of her moving out.
Anyhow, early August came and our 'roommate' moved out. This meant that Travis and I finally got to move out of the un-heated/un-airconditioned/moldy/noisy/disaster basement. We were actually going to have a bedroom that didn't require me to climb a flight of crappy stairs everytime I woke up in the middle of the night to pee. We had our issues with that. Travis was expected to take apart the entire bedroom set that was in the room we were moving into, and move it upstairs for his sister...Of course that was after he took apart the entire set that was upstairs in her room and moved it outside to the garage. Because, really, she can't be expected to do anything for herself...right?
During this move we also cleaned out the "back room" which was the laundry room and the bedroom that we were moving in to. And yes I mean DEEP cleaned. We were washing walls, vacuuming three or four times, changing blinds, shampooing carpets (because the kitten had been living in the back room and apparently it had diarrea and had shit all over the floors and the entire room smelled so awful that I had to leave the windows open for weeks to air it out...yeah I forgot that part...way to leave the kitten in the room that was going to be for the BABY...the baby she tried stealing the name from!), and dusting every surface we could find (I swiffered the ceiling). We moved everything out of the back room (including the washer and dryer that had to be up there because their mom had MD and was not able to go up and down stairs to do laundry) and started moving our stuff into the bedroom.
It was amazing. We FINALLY had air conditioning. I'm pretty sure Travis was much happier with the air conditioning than he led on...because, well, have you ever smelled a pregnant woman in August without it? I think you get my drift.
Shortly after that whole ordeal, I found out that my insurance had dropped me. That was a whole new headache to deal with. My only option was to get on Medicaid. It was a hassle but I finally got it all worked out, got my paperwork and started calling around to find a new OB (because of course I went to one that didn't accept Medicaid).
NO ONE would take me. I was seriously starting to think I was going to have to hire a bum off the street to deliver my baby. Everyone I talked to said I was 'way too far along' for them to take me on as a patient. It was a nightmare. I was in tears, calling hundreds of doctors, just trying to find someone to help. Finally I found out that there was a hospital in the area that had a helpline to try to match people with doctors. The first woman I talked to was either on the rag or had a telephone pole shoved up her ass because she told me that the service was only for people that were 'not capable of making the phone calls for themselves' and hung up on me. It wasn't. I had been transferred there from the L&D operator (who was a sweetheart, by the way). So, I called her back to ask her again and she re-transferred me and made sure I was talking to someone who would help. I finally got set up with an appointment to see the intake lady at a local family practice two days later.
They sped me through the system to get me set up for my appointments (because at that point I was 37 weeks pregnant and HAD to figure shit out) and I got set up for an appointment. The doctor wanted to check growth and send me for an ultrasound.
Great right?
Well, okay, it kind of was because I got to see the little monkey, but it set me up for minor heart failure. Bella was measuring at almost nine pounds at 37 weeks. I went to my next appointment which was only a few days after the ultrasound and they told me I was a high risk for a C-Section because of how big she was measuring. That started the NST/US checkups. The next checkup said I wasn't measuring quite as big, but they still wanted to schedule an induction so she didn't get too big. They were not going to let me go past my due date. Definitely music to my ears (because hell yes I was done with being pregnant...they could've told me I was being induced right that minute and I probably would've kissed the damn doctor).
Induction was schedule for Sept 12th but on the night of the 8th I started hurting. It wasn't cramping like I had always expected, it was a shooting pain down my right leg and it felt like someone had just stabbed me in the gut. I dealt with it for awhile but at about 3am on the 9th I tried calling L&D. No one answered. I waited another half hour and said fuck it and we went in. I remember telling the nurses "Uhm, I don't think I'm in labor, but it really hurts". They hooked me up to the monitors and told me I was there for the long haul.
Since I'm about 95% sure I've already posted my birth story, I won't go into all the details again (if not, its not a pretty story and I won't bore you all with another long winded ramble just yet) but Bella was born on 09/09/09!
My parents came out to visit and stayed for two days (not NEARLY long enough). It was great. I loved getting to see them and i was so glad that they got to see Bella so soon. It was fun too because eventhough I was totally miserable and sore as hell, we took them out to both the Atlantic City and Ocean City boardwalks. Bella got to see the ocean (through the little plastic part on the hood that covered her carseat/stroller) when she was only 4 days old!
The first night we had Bella home the power went out for a couple hours (i think it was off for two). Travis and I were both losing our minds. We were using tea lights for light and ended up having to change our first dirty diaper at home in the dark. Of course as soon as we got the diaper fastened (and I mean immediately when we fastened it) the lights came back on. So much fun.
Well...the end of September came and went (remember what was supposed to happen then?) with nothing exciting happening. My birthday was uneventful and we kicked off the beginning of October with Travis's equally uneventful birthday. I felt awful that I couldn't do anything special for him, but I was still a total mess at that point.
In mid-october his sister's girlfriend moved in. By thanksgiving she had finally told their family and they were (thankfully) splitting bills evenly between the four of us. By then things were FINALLY starting to get a little better around the house (although I still have fantasies about what it'd be like to have our own place again).
Things were pretty uneventful after that. Up until our trip out here to Kansas, that is. But you can all read about that in the other long-ass post below. For now I am thinking that it's about time to wrap up. It's 1:30, Bella's been asleep for a couple hours now, and I have to be up early tomorrow. If you're read through all of this, please come here and slap me...just don't wake me up to do it.
Night night.
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