Baby Showers

Look how happy I am. That is because diapers are the best present anyone can give a pregnant woman.

Don't get me wrong - any gift anyone has ever given me has been gratefully accepted and appreciated. However, we have received doubles of some things and some things we couldn't use, so we had to return them. This is usually not a very fun process, especially when no gift receipt was provided. However, with diapers... doubles, triples, fill my house with them and I thank you. I hear they go through about 50 per day so this truly is one thing that we just can't get enough of. Now, onesies - I was originally told you can never have too many of them, but I think you can. We probably have a supply of 2 or 3 per day every day for the first 6 months. No need to do laundry. Ever. Unless we run out of diapers, and then we may be going through more than 3 per day.

Some OB offices are better than others...

Unfortunately, mine is proving to be on the lower end of the spectrum.

Yesterday I showed up for my appointment and the girl at the front desk told me that my OB had been called in to deliver and there was no one to fill in so they'd have to reschedule me. "This is the fourth time this has happened!" I said in frustration. Another girl behind the counter snapped "Well, you're the fourth person we've turned away!" Her intention was to help me realize that I'm not so special; I'm not the only one whose appointment was cancelled. This surprised me a bit and I said "So wait a minute. How long have you known she wouldn't be able to meet with me?" The answer was several hours. I had them check my record to make sure they have my work and cell numbers and then asked why they didn't call. They stared back at me blankly. I explained that I have to leave work for these appointments, and I would appreciate a call if they know there is a cancellation. They continued to stare at me blankly, and did not commit to calling me in the future.

This is not too much to ask! It should be standard procedure, in fact, and probably is at most medical offices. I find myself wondering if my OB realizes her staff treats her patients this way. I'm not one to be a stool pigeon, but I'm thinking about telling her. I wouldn't switch doctors at 9 1/2 months, but I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone to this office. I hesitate to say anything though, because a small part of me doesn't want to cause problems for her or create any awkwardness since both my life and my baby's life are pretty much in her hands.

Easter Basket Update

I didn't get an Easter basket. I made one for him, but he didn't make one for me. No big deal - it was still fun making him find the basket I hid. I guess it's really a good thing because after this little fiasco, he won't insist on doing baskets for each other again. Plus next year we'll have a child, so the point will be moot anyway.

Some smells are worse than cologne.

Our back entry lock is malfunctioning so we called the company that installed it and they sent somebody to fix it. He came from Phoenix, and I smelled him coming before he ever reached Scottsdale city limits. I would've been able to handle it if he would've respected my bubble, but no. Evidently they sent the wrong type of lock guy so he had me pull up the manual on my computer and he steps up behind me and grabs my mouse and starts scrolling down to read it. Excuse me!? Did I say you could touch my computer? So I said "Why don't I just print that if you need to read it". He ignored me. So then I said "I'm sorry but you smell extremely foul and I'm going to throw up on my keyboard if you don't get out my business." Well, anyway, that's what I should have said.

So he wasn't able to fix it and started blaming us for not specifying what type of lock it was when we made the service call. Then he says "You just need to call a lock smith." I grabbed a pen and paper, wrote down his company's name and said "What's the phone number? I think I'll just call your company and see if they have anyone else there that knows how to fix it." So he says "Uh, that's ok, I'll put in the service call myself and we'll have someone come out."

I'm tempted to call his company and complain. He was an idiot. And it's amazing how much something like that is compounded when they smell bad.

The cologne-soaked courrier: A clever foe

On average, a courrier entering our office to either pick up or drop off a package is inside a total of 30 seconds. Every now and then one sticks around long enough to ask me a question I've never heard before like "When are you due?" "Have you picked a name?" or to say something clever and witty like "You look HUGE!" or "Why are you still here? Shouldn't you be bed-ridden by now?"

Every now and then one of these courriers has just bathed in cologne. They smell so strongly, I think there can be no other explanation than that. There is a small bathtub installed in their vehicle and just before coming into our office, they take a nice little dip. These select few are without fail the ones who are not in and out in 30 seconds. They are always the ones that hang out for a minute to ask if it's a boy or a girl or maybe to ask "So, were you trying?" (that really did happen once.)

When they finally leave, all oxygen has been sucked into the vacuum created by their cologne and it is absolutely impossible to breathe. The scent lingers for several hours, compounded by the fact that none of our windows open and the door cannot be propped open. At least not easily.

I don't usually complain about this anomole, because it's actually easier to deal with than the courriers who come in just having hot boxed a full pack of Marlboro in their vehicle while simultaneously rubbing old cigarette butts into their clothes for an enhanced effect.

Many of you may be thinking this is just my pregnancy-induced enhanced sense of smell. That is possible. I do remember it happening before, but it didn't affect me to the point of nausea (I guess I could have written ad nauseum there...) like it does now.

Details like these make me daydream about maternity leave.

Silly rabbit, Easter baskets are for kids!

I am faced with the task of making an Easter basket for my husband. I probably have to hide it Sunday morning in the house somewhere (or outside the house somewhere - that'd be interesting). He wanted to do this last year and I outvoted him. I don't feel like I can say no again, but I still feel deep down in my core that I shouldn't have to do this until I have kids that believe in the Easter Bunny.

I guess I have to agree with him that Easter just doesn't feel like Easter without a basket full of chocolate and an egg hunt or two. That's what it's all about after all, isn't it? (Is the facetiousness coming across ok?) It will actually probably be really fun. I wonder if it will be like growing up as a kid when everyone else stole all the good candy out of my basket. Honey, if you're reading this... don't you dare. I will know. And you will regret it.

To the Baby Style employees at Fashion Square Mall: "I hate you all."

Incident #1: Unnamed employee gives the worst demonstration of a Bugaboo stroller imaginable. They don't have much in the way of floor models, and what they do have she knows nothing about.

Incident #2: Unnamed employee attempts to rip us off while ordering a crib on their website. It would cost us about twice as much as other sites we'd found, and though she assured us they wouldn't, they ended up trying to charge us big shipping and handling fees after all.

Incident #3: Unnamed employee refuses return. Explanation: We were given a Britax infant carrier (car seat) a few months ago at a baby shower in my home town. We recently bought the Bugaboo Frog stroller which is (stupidly) not compatible with the Britax, meaning you can't snap it into the stroller. Once upon a time, there were two car seats that were compatible - the Peg Perego and the Graco. I have been told the Graco is crap so we thought we'd trade in our Britax for a Peg.

Called Baby Style retail store. An evil girl explained that they never under any circumstance return gear for safety issues. But it's brand new, still has tags... No can do she said.

Baby Style, if you are listening: Three strikes you're out.

Yes, we're naming her after a song. Sort of.

We're naming her Adeline. We first heard the name in the Elliot Smith song "Sweet Adeline". Nevermind that he supposedly committed suicide etc. etc. It's an incredible song, and the fact that he died tragically at a young age doesn't change that. We're not really naming her after the song anyway. We just discovered the name through the song. Is that the same thing? Anyone over the age of 40 thinks of barbershop quartet music when we tell them the name we've picked. I do not think of barbershop quartet music, nor does anyone under the age of 40. I think.

We'll call her Addie when she's little. Adeline sounds like a name that needs to be grown into. I could be wrong though. Maybe when she arrives we'll look at her and say "She looks like an Adeline" and never call her Addie. That might make us feel silly for putting ADDIE letter blocks up on the nursery wall. Oh well. ADELINE wouldn't have fit anyway.

I am growing a person.

So this is probably going to become a "mommy blog". I can tell myself that won't necessarily happen, but let's face it - in about 3 weeks I'm going to have a baby girl, and a lot of what I have to say will involve her to some extent. We'll see exactly to what extent in a few weeks. This is the first time I've posted here in a few months, so at this point I'm not exactly regular anyway. Up to this point I've only posted when I find myself at work in front of a computer with a LOT of time to kill. There will be a hiatus known as maternity leave and then I'll be back here again with the same dilemma.

This, however, does not mean I'm going to change the color of my site to pink. Even if it becomes a mommy blog, it doesn't have to look like one.

My husband's "daddy blog" has pictures. I haven't become that adept yet. If you'd like to check it out, it's http://sweetadeline.tblog.com/