Men are from Mars, Women are from the Container Store

A distinct gender difference became apparent in our home today. Steve is installing cabinets in our laundry room (courtesy of wedkin, thank you very much) and I am absolutely giddy! I am imagining the world of organization that will come with this additional storage space and cannot wait to get to work on making that happen! Steve, on the other hand, is primarily happy to get them out of the garage so he can park his car again.

One of those days. . .

25 w 4 d


Today is one of those days where you just don't want to do anything. I have felt unmotivated and had an intense desire to just laze around all day. Unfortunately, there really is a lot I 'should' be doing. Sigh. Not being able to just nap in a hammock today is a real bummer.

Feats of Strength - For Patrick

The amazing Murray Baby has been getting a lot of exercise this weekend. One of my very best friends Patrick requested that I attempt to get a video if I thought it'd be viewable in that medium. Well, here it is Patrick (and anyone else who wants to be amazed by the power of our child!). ENJOY!

Taking a break

24 weeks, 6 days

I don't know what your Memorial Day plans are, but mine consist of psychopharmacology, social psychology, and if I'm really lucky, some industrial organizational psych and psych assessment. Not to mention some fabulous on-line prep tests for the EPPP. Sigh. I am glad to have the extra day and time to spend on this, but my hand is getting sore from making flash cards on psychotropic meds. Under one month to go though, so time to get focused!!

I decided to positively reinforce myself after getting through the mood stablizers though, with an email check and quick upload. I had a request for a picture with my head, so here it is! Steve's and my schedules have been pretty crazy up until recently and by the time he has been leaving for work, I've still been in pjs and when he gets home, they're often back on. Unless I've worked one of my late days, in which case I'm generally not up for a picture. :o)

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone, hopefully you're all enjoying time outside or something more exciting than me!

Up and at 'em

For some ridiculous reason, my eyes popped open at 4:45 this morning and there was no returning to slumberland. . . I stayed in bed for 30 minutes trying to get back to sleep and smiling as my baby was wiggling around before I admitted defeat and got up. Is the practice for earlier mornings starting already?? Couldn't that hold off until, oh, I don't know. . . The baby comes?!

Anyway. Getting up early had several advantages this morning. First, I learned of the birth of one of Baby Murray's friends, Peyton Surgenor, who was born a few weeks early and arrived yesterday. Steve and Peyton's daddy, Doug, became friends in college. It's exciting for these new babies to arrive!

The other advantage is that I have now spent over an hour purging stuff from the office. When my mom is up in June, she has been informed that I will be requesting her services to continue the process. I have gotten rid of (into recycling of course) loads of articles on grief and loss, so you would think that the office is already a bit more cheerful! In yoga at work yesterday, Tara offered the suggestion of removing as much from our lives/homes that don't meet the criteria of being: beautiful, useful, or able to bring a smile to your face.

I come by my pack rattiness honestly, but am working hard at rebelling against it. Because seriously, am I going to review the volunteer handbook from practicums I was on several years ago? I don't think so. If I work there again, they'll give me a new handbook. Until then, get out of my office!

Hot in here!

(Both 24 w 4 d)

Holy cow! I'm a girl who loves some heat, in my food, in the weather, you name it. That being said, the air conditioning hasn't been working right at work, I'm on the top floor (pregnant ), and all I wanted was a temperature drop!! I also work with clients who are perpetually cold and even in the sauna that was the group room tonight were snuggled up with sweaters. Phew! It's supposed to cool off tomorrow - I'm counting on it.

One of my clients tonight said it was practice for August since it'll be like this. Except with 12 more weeks of baby and 120 x more humidity!! Not sure that it's going to be quite the same, but if so, I've done it at least.

Here are a few baby pictures for the week. The belly just looked too good and swollen tonight to not share up close and personal!

Already a distraction

It's amazing to me how distracting someone who weighs barely a pound can be! When (s)he moves around, it is so hard to stay focused! This can be problematic in sessions with clients, at church, and when I'm trying to study. The first two situations help me remember to practice being mindful, slow down, and stay in the moment. The last is a good reminder that it's easier to study now than it will be when (s)he makes the grand enterance!

It has been a fairly uneventful weekend, which is nice. Yesterday I got a haircut and then studied a bit at a little (noisy) coffee shop. Came home, ate lunch, and tried to study a bit more. I decided a nap might help and then proceeded to hit snooze for over an hour. Whoops. Woke up and got a little more done before we made a yummy dinner of some Canadian northern, potatoes, and corn before dessert at the theater (buttered popcorn, YUMMY!). We saw Star Trek, along with much of the rest of the country I think, and it really was good! There were a few parts that got loud suddenly and started Baby Murray, (s)he had a few sudden responses that were, you guessed it, distracting.

This morning we went to church, grabbed a yummy lunch, and now Steve is at the rental for a few hours while I get some studying done. (I promise I'm taking just a short break now to catch up the blog for the week. I will promptly go back to work in spite of my strong desire to take a nap!)

Time is just zipping by. I can't believe how quickly it feels like this summer is going to go and then Baby Murray will be here! We are trying to figure out all the possible scenarios for the nursery and may have come up with a good option at lunch today. There may be a brief period of time in which the office gets moved in to the dining room, but Steve has assured me we can move it upstairs before the baby comes and put the dining room back together so I don't have a nesting freak out over the state of the house. We're also thinking of moving our bedroom to the main floor for several months this summer where the guest room currently is. This would serve me well for several reasons. 1. It's closer to the bathroom and that is increasingly appealing and 2. it's cooler downstairs and as it heats up and I grow, that too is increasingly appealing. So the house may be a little topsy turvy, but we'll get through!



23 weeks, 4 days

**Oh, and Steve's aunt gave me a suggestion to try for my legs. . . I'm picking up some cream today and crossing my fingers that it works!**

Welcome to the club

Sunday was my first mother's day. . . Sort of. Without a baby in your arms to hug, it seems a little strange to celebrate, but as my mom put it, this baby has already changed a lot in our life. Saturday night Steve took me out for date night. . . Wolverine. Aren't I a lucky girl?! ;o) When he came home though, he brought roses from him and other flowers from the baby for mother's day. Very sweet. The Sunday morning we woke up and he took me out to breakfast to celebrate before church. I left with a very yummy piece of cake that the restaurant was giving away to moms. Even they believed that mothers-to-be count. Couple that was several very nice phone calls/messages from friends and family and some very sweet cards, this mom was definitely feeling the love and support! Both my mom and Steve's welcomed me to the club of mom's. I think I'm in good company.

Now that everyone's feeling all warm and fuzzy, I also have to take a moment to complain. At the end of the day, I have been ending up with the back of my knees being red and tender, like they've been rubbing or irritated all day and it really hurts! If anyone else has experienced this and has a trick to fix it, please let me know! I sat with my feet up for about an hour before heading to bed with my feet stacked high up on pillows last night. That reduced the little bit of swelling I had in my legs and may have helped the awful redness behind my legs, but I don't think that's it. That may be my least favorite part of pregnancy to date. . . Maybe.

Good-bye 22, Hello 23

This past week has not been my favorite. I've been feeling a lot more stressed out by life in general and as a result am happy that today marks the beginning of a new week (at least in the baby time line).

Today was one of those days where I had several fun things planned and fully intended on being 'productive' with the time in between. Instead it has turned in to a day (and a half, I guess it started last night) of connecting with myself and with girlfriends. Last night after taking dinner to Steve & his mom at our rental, I treated myself to some super yummy ice cream at Izzy's (salted caramel and Norweigan chai, I will be going back soon!), came home, popped on Sex in the City, and painted my toes for perhaps the last time without assitance in this pregnancy. That movie is like therapy for me, I aboslutely love it, and the time to just take a little time to treat myself was great.

Then this morning started with coffee with a girlfriend before trying out a free prenatal yoga class. Lindsay had two coupons to check out Blooma and she let me use one of them, which was great. The tension in my body was not a huge surprise after week, but it was a little shocking to me just how tight I was. The class was well timed and felt great. I came home, had lunch, fell asleep for a bit, watched a little TV, and then just spent the last few hours with my girlfriend Lisa looking at cute (over priced) baby stuff. Seriously, who would spend $100 + on a frilly tutu for a toddler? Don't get me wrong, it was adorable, but holy cow!

So now I'm waiting for Steve to come home so we can figure out dinner and I think head to see Wolverine. Not exactly a productive sense in some ways, but in others it was exactly the type of productivity I needed to welcome in this new week with a fresh perspective.

5 down 4 to go

Months that is. Holy cow! 5 May marked the end of the 5th month. It's hard to believe that Baby Murray's ETA is 4 months from now. It feels like there is still a ton to do (we haven't even thought much about the baby's room or done more that perused Babies R Us, plus I'm studying for licensure and Steve is rarely home as he's busy working and getting the rental ready). I guess this is like hide-and-seek, ready or not, the baby will come!

This morning I have my echocardiogram to see how my heart is adjusting to the pregnancy. I'm confident things will be fine, but I guess you never know. I believe the only adjustment to make would be taking antibiotics during delivery, which may cause me to butt up against my desire to be able to move about if they make me have them through an IV. Hopefully that would be negotiable. I generally head in to my md appointments, let her know things are fine, and leave without asking questions. This month though I plan on heading in with quite the list to get a better understanding of hospital restrictions and regulations for the birth process. I've even had a few dreams about my concerns and admimentally told my mom in one that I absolutely do not want Pit. She got the picture. :o)

Here are a few pictures of the bump from the past few days.

22 w 1 d, getting ready to study outside


The baby kept me smiling in spite of the EPPP as (s)he was quite wiggly!


Cooking with my baby. (**Sorry that so many of these pictures come with a direct shot of my arm pit, seems weird to me. . .**)

Week 21

Time continues to fly on by! We are at week 22 today and come 5 May, we'll be past month 5 with less than 4 left before the anticipated arrival! I think I've said this before, but there seriously is so much to get done that the time zipping by like this is a little frightening. And, we'll figure it out, that's what happens.

Steve and I watched The Business of Being Born last Sunday night. It brought up great discussions for us and really brought Steve on board with all I've been reading and learning about birth. The Murrays may be crazy and have a homebirth in the future, you never know, but with this one, I think we'll stick to the hospital plan (with as few medical interventions as we can possibly have). The more I read and learn, the more confident I am that my body was designed for this and I can and will be able to do this without terror, injury, and medication. I remember first meeting with our physician who commented on the fact that I believed this would most likely ensure that this would be my experience. I really appreciated that then and do still today. Now to have a talk with her about how freely I'll be able to move around. . .

Steve and I also celebrated our 3 year anniversary this past Wednesday. We were married 2 years to the day that we met, so we have now known each other for just over 5 years. Pretty incredible how much has happened! We enjoyed a nice dinner at the restaurant where we had the rehearsal dinner and shared memories as well as excitement about the future. Hard to believe that next year will require a baby sitter if we are to go out alone!