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I feel like I should go by months...
May: nothing much happened in May. It was awesome.
June: we closed on our house and started working on getting it livable. This became a crazy project, as every time we did something cosmetic it unearthed something Big. My fave: take down very ugly drop ceiling in kitchen? Discover plywood. Unscrew plywood, discover hole. Stand under hole, discover... leak. Call plumber to fix leak, find out waste drain pipe is lead, and therefore unrepairable. Yay! Also, start electrical repair work and find out that basically no outlets in the house are grounded, and only those on the first floor can become grounded. Awesome.
July: Continue house repairs. This involved sanding down all the floors on the first floor (four) and the office, and refinishing them. Also, stripping wallpaper from kitchen and bedroom and entryway -- discover that plaster in entryway is essentially dust held together by ancient wallpaper glue. Oops. And painting bedroom, office, parlor, living room, and kitchen. During this time I signed a contract to work extra hours and get extra $$ because all our quick cosmetic fixes were so not quick or cosmetic. Now I have more working (48 hours/week) and less sleeping. Perfect, as this is when A: I went off birth control, which often involves hormones and B: we had to move by the end of the month, which often involves packing.
PSA: they tell you that people often don't ovulate for up to 3 months after stopping the pill. These are lies. They say that stress screws with hormones, and they still lie. They tell you that *even once* is enough to get pregnant... and they speak profound truth, people. I was pregnant before the end of July. But I didn't know that yet.
August: the house is now where we keep all our stuff. Too bad there's no refrigerator or stove... Refrigerator gets delivered badly dented at the compressor, has to be sent back. Stove gets delivered to warehouse, which call us to tell us it is "totaled". We achieve full kitchen function by the middle of August. Also: I pee on a stick. And there was much puzzlement, followed by rejoicing.
September: My contract ended, which was lucky because I slept almost all of September. No, *really*. Ever have Mono? Slightly sleepier, with no spleen damage. It was kinda funny. Or at least, I was made fun of a bit. But I would just say "I'm very busy gestating" and go back to drooling on the nearest pillow-like object. Vague low-levels of nausea for a week or two, no yakking, and just an intense disinterest in meat. Work completely stops on the house at this point, as I'm sleeping, and we're broke.
October: in which we discover the bad parts of where we live. First, a rock got thrown through our garage door. Awesome! Then there was a car fire just behind our car (still don't know if it was spontaneous or set). Then Halloween was interesting. We had just shy of *200* trick-or-treaters. Seriously. Found out the next day that there were a series of attacks around the neighborhood wherein a group of 5-10 people in hoodies would beat up someone walking by them, then run away and blend in with the throngs of costumes. Then the next day someone threw a small pumpkin through the glass in our front door. Awesome! OK, that was technically November, but it was attached to Halloween.
November: the curse continues. Two high school girls got hit by a car while walking to school. In front of our house. All incidents are random and unconnected. But 4 incidents on our corner involving police and or fire response in 32 days.... Loving where we live right now.
In pregnancy news, the fatigue is basically over, and it has segued nicely into the complete nightmare that is my normal response to the time and season change. Namely, I'm sleeping all the time. YAY! I still fit into my normal pants if I'm standing up, but I feel like I'm being cut in half when I sit down, so I'm wearing maternity clothes that are too big. But I'm 16 weeks now, so things should really fill out any time now. Yes, we plan to find out the sex of the baby. That'll happen around 20 weeks-ish, which is in early December. I'm due at the end of April, so we've got a way to go. Which is good, because we still have uncovered crumbling plaster in the front hall, and a hole in the kitchen ceiling. And we're really really broke.
Ah, broke in time for the holidays. Awesome.
There ends my tale of woe. If I have been out of touch (and I have) this is the very short summary version of what I would have whined about. Did I mention the fatigue? Seriously, people.
Good thing: Rosie, the awesomest mother-in-law, finished all the chemo, had a lumpectomy, finished her radiation and is now supposed to be cancer-free. Woot! Thanksgiving indeed this year.
May: nothing much happened in May. It was awesome.
June: we closed on our house and started working on getting it livable. This became a crazy project, as every time we did something cosmetic it unearthed something Big. My fave: take down very ugly drop ceiling in kitchen? Discover plywood. Unscrew plywood, discover hole. Stand under hole, discover... leak. Call plumber to fix leak, find out waste drain pipe is lead, and therefore unrepairable. Yay! Also, start electrical repair work and find out that basically no outlets in the house are grounded, and only those on the first floor can become grounded. Awesome.
July: Continue house repairs. This involved sanding down all the floors on the first floor (four) and the office, and refinishing them. Also, stripping wallpaper from kitchen and bedroom and entryway -- discover that plaster in entryway is essentially dust held together by ancient wallpaper glue. Oops. And painting bedroom, office, parlor, living room, and kitchen. During this time I signed a contract to work extra hours and get extra $$ because all our quick cosmetic fixes were so not quick or cosmetic. Now I have more working (48 hours/week) and less sleeping. Perfect, as this is when A: I went off birth control, which often involves hormones and B: we had to move by the end of the month, which often involves packing.
PSA: they tell you that people often don't ovulate for up to 3 months after stopping the pill. These are lies. They say that stress screws with hormones, and they still lie. They tell you that *even once* is enough to get pregnant... and they speak profound truth, people. I was pregnant before the end of July. But I didn't know that yet.
August: the house is now where we keep all our stuff. Too bad there's no refrigerator or stove... Refrigerator gets delivered badly dented at the compressor, has to be sent back. Stove gets delivered to warehouse, which call us to tell us it is "totaled". We achieve full kitchen function by the middle of August. Also: I pee on a stick. And there was much puzzlement, followed by rejoicing.
September: My contract ended, which was lucky because I slept almost all of September. No, *really*. Ever have Mono? Slightly sleepier, with no spleen damage. It was kinda funny. Or at least, I was made fun of a bit. But I would just say "I'm very busy gestating" and go back to drooling on the nearest pillow-like object. Vague low-levels of nausea for a week or two, no yakking, and just an intense disinterest in meat. Work completely stops on the house at this point, as I'm sleeping, and we're broke.
October: in which we discover the bad parts of where we live. First, a rock got thrown through our garage door. Awesome! Then there was a car fire just behind our car (still don't know if it was spontaneous or set). Then Halloween was interesting. We had just shy of *200* trick-or-treaters. Seriously. Found out the next day that there were a series of attacks around the neighborhood wherein a group of 5-10 people in hoodies would beat up someone walking by them, then run away and blend in with the throngs of costumes. Then the next day someone threw a small pumpkin through the glass in our front door. Awesome! OK, that was technically November, but it was attached to Halloween.
November: the curse continues. Two high school girls got hit by a car while walking to school. In front of our house. All incidents are random and unconnected. But 4 incidents on our corner involving police and or fire response in 32 days.... Loving where we live right now.
In pregnancy news, the fatigue is basically over, and it has segued nicely into the complete nightmare that is my normal response to the time and season change. Namely, I'm sleeping all the time. YAY! I still fit into my normal pants if I'm standing up, but I feel like I'm being cut in half when I sit down, so I'm wearing maternity clothes that are too big. But I'm 16 weeks now, so things should really fill out any time now. Yes, we plan to find out the sex of the baby. That'll happen around 20 weeks-ish, which is in early December. I'm due at the end of April, so we've got a way to go. Which is good, because we still have uncovered crumbling plaster in the front hall, and a hole in the kitchen ceiling. And we're really really broke.
Ah, broke in time for the holidays. Awesome.
There ends my tale of woe. If I have been out of touch (and I have) this is the very short summary version of what I would have whined about. Did I mention the fatigue? Seriously, people.
Good thing: Rosie, the awesomest mother-in-law, finished all the chemo, had a lumpectomy, finished her radiation and is now supposed to be cancer-free. Woot! Thanksgiving indeed this year.