Last ultrasound today...

Everything looks good. Development is right on schedule, almost to the day in fact when they measure the baby's abdominal cavity and femur length. The head however, is a different story. As of today, my kid's head is measuring almost two full weeks ahead of the rest of the development. It's not a problem, and doesn't indicate any type of dysfunction, as it appears to have a normal, proportional brain inside of it, but it's gonna be hell delivering this kid.
They were concerned that I was going to have to plan a C section or be induced early, as my abdomen has been measuring on the large side for the last two visits and I'm not exactly a large person to begin with, but it appears that the baby is right on track. Right now, it weighs about 4 pounds, 3 ounces per the calcuations, and the best gestimate at this time is that it's going to be about seven or eight pounds at birth.
So, everything looks good. I'm expecting based on today's calcuations to not have an activity restrictions if I want to keep running until the day I deliver. I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep it up though, as I'm starting to fatigue pretty quickly and I'm having some minor hip issues when I run. We'll see how it goes after I slow down a little more tomorrow.

Conspicously absent

that's me. I've been less than stellar about blogging lately...it probably has something to do with the fact that I'm a mere nine weeks away from evicting this kid from my body...or perhaps to do with the fact that I've been really, really busy (like crazy busy) with my J-O-B.
This week has been pretty much the week from hell. I've been helping to provide vacation coverage for another therapist all week, and thus have had to condense all of my own work into less than half of the time that it normally takes me. Monday morning I had a new student start at my clinic (thank God she's on the ball for the most part) and I saw fifteeen or sixteen patients in a five hour time span. Insane. Then I went to vacation dude's office. Tuesday was expanded hours at the other clinic to cover the vacationing guy's patients, Wednesday was normal (but packed) at my office, today was normal hours at the other clinic and tomorrow is split again between my own office (sixteen patients in four and a half hours) and vacation slacker's office. Insane again. I'll be so glad when tomorrow night rolls around.
Baby wise I'm doing pretty good. I'm still not sleeping well, I guess it's good practice for when the kid gets here...I just cannot get comfortable at all. I'm still running, but slower than dirt. We've got our last ultrasound scheduled for next Tuesday. Normally they only do two ultrasounds in my doctor's practice unless you have problems at some point, but they're doing a third for us since I've managed to stay active this far into it. They're going to be checking on fetal growth and as long as everything is still on track size wise I'll be given the green light to keep running as long as I'm comfortable. If the bambino is showing a slowdown in growth I'll be told to stop running.
My husband keeps teasing me that I'll be one of those people who waits till the last minute to go to the hospital once I'm in labor because I'll still have to get my run in for the day. I'm thinking that I'll go ahead to the hospital once labor starts, but if it's not moving along quick enough I'll head down to the PT gym to take a run on the treadmill...in reality this probably won't happen, but I think I'll mention it to my doc just to see his reaction.
In other news, our cousin just announced that she's also expecting. She's due three months after me, so that's pretty exciting that our kids will be almost the same age. Also, one of my coworkers (probably the one I like the most) just matched with a birth mother and is going to be moving forward with their adoption next month. Her baby's birth mom is due a month before me...this will create some scheduling conflicts at the office, but it a totally fantastic thing for her.
Lots of little people showing up in our lives in the next six months!

Biggest load of crap ever...

lives right here.
This is without a doubt the biggest load of garbage I've ever read. So what if I like to run with my ipod sometimes? Or if I'm going to load my kid into a tricked out jogging stroller the second it's old enough for one and hit the road? Yes, I log some of my weekly mileage on a treadmill (okay, I log it all on a treadmill now), I'm still a runner damnit.
Let it be known that I'm never buying any type of Pearl Izumi shoes or athletic gear...for the rest of my life. I'm not quite sure what they hoped to accomplish with this ad, other than pissing real runners off. I'm thinking that it's kind of ironic that so many people that I would definitely consider real runners fall into the "jogger" cateogory by this ad's standards.
I'm also finding it kind of interesting that I don't see too many elite runners wearing Pearl Izumi stuff...in fact, I only ever see it on high school girls who run track...and most of them that I've met I've met during the course of my job...meaning that they have some kind of orthopedic issue, which miraculously enough, goes away as soon as they stop wearing the Izumis. How's that for coincidence.
I'm off to compose an irate email to their advertising department.

Movie review...

It's been a long time since I've posted a movie review. It's not been that I haven't seen anything recently, it's just that I haven't felt much like posting recently. We saw Ocean's Thirteen yesterday. It rocked. Of course, I'm biased, because I do love George Clooney, but even so, it was a clever movie.
We didn't do much this weekend outside of the movie. We had to help my grandma get her television set up yesterday morning, we rented All the Kings Men (which I don't recommend) and today we just lounged around the house and did some chores.
We did go to Barnes and Noble today to look for a few classic children's books for the baby. I have a major shopping jones right now. I just want to go buy stuff, but am trying to hold back. We're not sure if either side of our families are throwing this baby a shower, but figure if we go buy stuff now and then they throw us one, we'll just have to take a ton of stuff back later. I found four of the ones that I loved when I was a kid, but am still looking for about five or six more.
I picked up Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, the Little Engine That Could, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and Goodnight Moon. I was really surprised to see that the bookstore didn't carry the Little Golden Book line anymore. I thought that these books were staples of every little kid's library. I'm wondering if I might have more success looking for this line of books at Target or Walmart.

Wouldn't you think I'd have learned my lesson the first time?

I went to the lab this morning. Routine blood work, actually a gestational diabetes test, which are standard in the early third trimester. I was supposed to drink this small bottle of orange stuff that kind of tasted like sno cone syrup. This was supposed to be the worst part of the whole experience, as I don't like orange anything and it was early morning.
My story starts off at slightly after seven this morning, when I figured the lab would be almost empty...not so much. There must have been twenty people waiting to have work done. So thirty minutes after my arrival, they finally call my name. I go into the treatment room, and hand the girl my paperwork only to hear her say "oh good, just a simple glucose fast blood draw." She starts getting her blood draw stuff ready, at which point I decide it's in my best interest to ask some questions, such as "don't I have to drink the sugar syrup first?"
She proceeds to tell me that I'd already drank it, which I was pretty sure that I hadn't done, so we spent a few minutes discussing why I hadn't drank the syrup yet (uhm, how 'bout cause they didn't give it to me at the doctor's office and I can't buy it at the store?) After several minutes of discussion they figured out that the nurse at my doctor's office hadn't checked the right box on the lab requisition.
Sound familiar anyone? The same thing happened when I had my quad screen ten weeks ago.
So, long story short, I called the exchange, because of course the doctor's office was still closed, forty five long minutes later, they called me back. I drank the goo, which was pretty gross, and then had to sit in the waiting room for another hour while my body processed the sugar solution. Hopefully I passed so that I don't have to take the three hour test later this month. How much would that suck?

Moving day

for my Grandma. She's moving from the house that she's lived in for over fifty years to a senior citizen's retirement community. My mother has been organizing/coordinating the move. For those of you who've never met my mother, she's not exactly the most organized person in the free world. In fact, my dad often tells her that she would not be very successful at organizing a one car funeral. This is a pretty accurate statement. So it was no surprise when we showed up today to help move Grandma and pretty much nothing was packed.
The boxes where there, but they were all empty. The closets were still completely full, the cabinets were full, the basement was still jam packed, and pretty much nothing was ready to go. We were told to be at Grandma's old house around eleven. (I told my mom that I didn't want to get started really early...meaning nine o'clock or later would be fine...she told everyone to show up late morning.) Then she and my dad were over thirty minutes late to the whole thing anyway. Then my dad decided that the lawn needed to be mowed...right then. That had to take priority over what we were actually there to do. Fine. So we loaded my car full of stuff and got ready to leave. I think my mom actually wanted us to wait until they were done and ready to go to the new house too...but I really don't see the point in sitting around wasting time while my dad does a chore that could be done tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day....
My aunt, uncle and two cousins were suppposed to be helping...when we left at eleven forty five with a carload of crap they still hadn't shown up. We stopped for lunch on our way to the new house, by the time we got to the new house, there still was no sign of my aunt, uncle, or cousins. We unloaded our car and got to work hanging blinds, and my aunt finally showed up. So we helped her unload her car and put stuff away in the bathroom and kitchen. My parents still had not left Grandma's old house when we were finished at the new house.
All in all, the entire day was pretty much a cluster. I'm pretty sure that by the time everything is done, my mom and her sister won't be talking, my grandma and my mom won't be talking, and everyone will just be totally pissed at everyone else. Good times, eh?