Progress....ish

So I had another doctor's appointment yesterday. I got my Group B Strep test (for those unfamiliar with this, it's standard now to test pregnant women to see if they carry this common bacteria. If a woman is positive, she receives antibiotics during labor so as not to pass it on to her child), which was...okay. I'll find out this coming week if I'm positive for it or not, but I'm not worried, it's not a big deal either way. I was a little less than thrilled, though, because I was waiting in the exam room half naked for almost 45 minutes before my doctor came in. The woman whose appointment was before mine was carrying twins, so I'm guessing that's why it took so long. Why they don't schedule a longer block for multiples, I just don't know, but...whatever.

One bad thing was that my blood pressure spiked quite a bit. Usually it's 120s/60s-70s, but this time it was 140/85. It's a big jump, and it's really unusual for me. Apparently it's also borderline pre-eclampsia, so I have to check my blood pressure a couple times, and if it goes up a little more I have to have additional appointments. I'm a little bummed since I'm managed to avoid complications thus far, but...meh. We'll see. Either it goes up or it doesn't, and it's late enough in my pregnancy that it won't be a huge problem.

The (sort of) good news is that he checked me for dilation, and I'm 1 cm dilated and slightly effaced. True, it's not much (and Dr. Whalen made a point to tell me that women can easily stay at 1 cm for weeks, so not to get too excited), but I can't help but feel like at least I'm doing something. Hopefully I'll continue to progress for the next few weeks, I really don't want to be induced.

Poor cat.

Who would've thought that Brett and I would actually be cat people? Not me, that's for sure. But a couple of years ago, we took in a cat that our friends were getting rid of. He was a little black cat, they'd taken him in as a stray and named him Darth Vader. Being the nerds we are, we kept the name. It was just too funny to change.

After several months of being cat owners, Vader decided to liberate himself. Brett was disappointed, but not terribly broken up about it. I, on the other hand, was really bummed and wanted to get another cat. About a month or so after he ran away, I convinced Brett to adopt a kitten from PetSmart. She was also black, and so tiny! We named her Evey and took her home.

Right from the start I just loved her! She was so feisty and playful. Brett teased me often about picking the feistiest cat in the litter, and it's true. She had two siblings there as well, and both were more docile than Evey. But I just couldn't help it. At any rate, we really got to love the little fluffy creature, far more than either of us expected to. Sure, she was mischievous at times (like when she would inexplicably knead and entire roll of toilet paper....) but she was so playful and affectionate. She would come over when we'd be on the couch watching a movie and climb up on my stomach and just curl up and purr.

For the past few months we've been debating whether to keep her or find her a new home, since we have a baby coming (and having a pet in our new apartment is incredibly expensive). At length we decided to find a new home for her. It was really difficult, because I didn't WANT to get rid of her. I really grew attached to her, as did Brett. Finally, though, we found a girl around our age who wanted a playmate for her cat, who is about the same age as Evey. So we took Evey over to the woman's apartment. Poor kitty.

I have to admit, leaving my cat with another person was really hard, especially knowing that I'm probably never going to see her again. As soon as we walked out of her apartment, I started crying. Of course, I think I can partly blame it on my hormones, but I am really sad. I loved the little furball.

Brett and I have agreed--no more pets until we have a house. There's no way I want to go through that again. Giving up something you love is way too difficult, even when it is for the best.

I love my family!

So we have had a completely AWESOME month so far. All of the out-of-town sisters either have or will be visiting this month! How cool is that! I love being able to hang out with my family. It's different now that I'm an adult (and much more mature than several years ago). It's more fun, and I really enjoy getting to know my sisters again as an adult, not as one of the 'little girls'.

Sharon, Kristin, and Annette and their families have all visited so far. Miriam and her family will be here next week. We've had so much fun! It was especially great to see Kristin and Scott and their boys. We haven't seen them in four years, and they had never even met Brett. It was really cool to find out how many things we have similar tastes in (like music). Go figure. Also, I have to say, I LOVED having Kristin cook. I'm always so jealous of her posts on Facebook about the amazing things she's been making, so it was really fun to be able to sample some of her delicious food! But it's probably a good thing she hasn't been here throughout my pregnancy, because I would probably be a whale by now. A really big whale. It was kind of funny, because Brett mentioned something about the Johnson girls liking to cook, and either Sharon or Kristin said that it's because we love to eat! How true!

Since Brett and I still had to work, we didn't get to do a lot of the day activities with everyone. But I did get to go to the Zoo with Sharon, Kristin, their families, and Mom and Heather. It was a lot of fun, although it was really hot. I was careful, stayed in the shade when I could, and kept hydrated (plus wore a hefty sunscreen), so it actually wasn't unpleasant at all. I loved seeing how excited my nieces & nephews got about all the animals. They were especially cute about the penguins, although that may have something to do with the fabulous temperature of the Penguin House. After the Zoo we had a little picnic lunch/dinner. It was fun to sit and talk while the kids ran around playing hide & seek. Also probably a good thing that we ate so late, because Sharon and Shellie helped me make Polynesian food for dinner, and it takes a while to make. So technically we had dinner at, like, 8:30 or so that night. But surprisingly, the Poly food was a fairly big hit. I was really proud of the kids for trying the stuff, I'm sure it was a little...scary.

We didn't get to see a whole lot of Annette and Joseph and their kids because they were also up this way for a wedding, but we did get to hang out for a little while. We celebrated Heather & Kristin's birthday with a party (and some amazingly delicious food....thank you, Kristin). It was way fun to have the sisters there, as well as several of Heather's friends. We played Werewolves, which is kind of like Mafia. I'd never played either, but it was a lot of fun!

I'm looking forward to seeing Miriam and her family next week. I'm sure there will be more fun tales to tell!

So much to catch up on!

Okay, so I'm going to completely bypass the fact that I'm a complete slacker and just move along with my post. :)

It's been really hectic the past couple months. We found a new apartment and moved, which is great because of course we need more room for the baby when she makes her appearance. I HATE moving, and it's always a really stressful time for me. Even more so this time since I couldn't help out very much as most of our furniture (and many of the boxes) were too heavy for me to lift. Fortunately Brett was great about it, and we had a couple of really fantastic friends come over to help us for a few days. Thanks, Liz and Dustin! Brett and Dustin managed to move all the furniture and most of the other stuff, leaving just some odds and ends for me to finish up, which was just fine. Long story short, we got out and got the old place cleaned up in time, and now we're nicely ensconced in our new place. It's been kind of slow going, getting everything where we want it, but we're almost done now. Finally!

Also, we finally got the crib & mattress ordered. I had been waiting til after we moved so that I could have it delivered to the new apartment (rather than having to move it with all our other stuff), and last time I went to place the order, it was out of stock! I have to admit, I freaked out a little bit, because they never give you a time frame for how long they expect it to be out of stock. So of course my prego brain starts going crazy and worrying about not having a crib, etc. But it's all good, I decided to check yesterday and it was back in stock! It was a little irritating, because they were supposed to email me when it came back in, but they never did. At any rate, I ordered the crib I want, and the mattress to go with it. I'm totally excited! I guess I'm really starting to feel the nesting urge now, because I just want to get things done! I know I'll be able to relax more when I'm not worrying about all of this stuff.

There's so much more to write about, but I'm going to make separate posts so it'll be easier to read.