19 Week Update (Because I Can't Think of a Creative Title)

I'm finally calming down from our hell week last week. I literally had to leave work early every single day for something related to the baby, moving, or closing on our condo. We also were supposed to have a meeting with our builder, but fortunately Ben took the reins on that as I just couldn't miss any more work that I already did. On top of that, I was trying to finish packing up all of our belongings in a very organized fashion so that I would be able to find things as we needed them. I started out pretty organized, but got pretty sloppy in the end in an effort to get everything moved out. My parents came down a few times and ended up being a TREMENDOUS help. I tried to do as much as I could by myself, but one pregnant woman can only do so much! On top of that our buyers were pretty nit-picky about things so I ended up having to fight with an HVAC company to get them to come back out and re-do work they had already done in order to satisfy the buyers. (More on them later) Everything ended up working out smoothly and we closed without a hitch so it is a relief to have that off our plate!

Ben and I went to the doctor last Tuesday for my 2nd trimester ultrasound. This is the big one where they do a full anatomy scan of the baby to make sure everything is healthy. This is also where you would be able to find out the sex of your baby, but of course we didn't chose to do so -- they told us when to look away and we both did! So that means there is no going back now -- Shim is officially a Shim (she + him) until May!! Anyway, the doctors say that everything looks great with Shim and even though we really had no cause to be concerned it is still nice to hear that from a doctor!

I need to get some better 19 week belly pictures done, but for now here is a picture of me this morning.

Now, I KNOW that I am getting bigger. I think I've gained about 10 pounds, which may be a little on the high side considering I'm only 19 weeks, but I think most would agree that it is typically best to not point that out to any pregnant woman. Fortunately, I haven't had too many people make annoying comments to me, but the few I have heard have reeeeelllly set me off! For example, I was at a family Christmas lunch the other day and someone who I hadn't seen in a while said:

"So you're only 19 weeks, huh? Do the doctors say you're going to have a big baby?"

Now, I'm fairly certain she wasn't trying to insult me. BUT was that really necessary to say? I think not! I was polite in my response but I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from snapping!

There are 3 people in this world that can get away with making fat, pregnant comments or jokes to me: Mom, Sister, Doctor. Anyone who doesn't fall into one of those 3 categories should probably stick with more generic comments.

Other than that I feel like my pregnancy has been fairly boring - no major cravings other than cookie dough. I got so excited yesterday when I was reading a sugar cookie dough recipe because I didn't see where it called for an egg but then I realized that had to be a mistake - I highly doubt there is a such thing as an eggless cookie! Although I say my pregnancy has been uneventful, I will admit that I have a major case of prego-brain. The other night after dinner with some friends I went to leave and couldn't remember where I had parked my car. I literally walked the parking lot, in the cold, for 10 minutes searching for it! I've also noticed that I've been a little more ditzy/forgetful than usual but apparently that is something everyone experiences. (Right????)

I Really, Really Hate You Dish Network

So last winter I had all sorts of problems with Dish Network, our satellite cable provider. If you want a full recap, you can go back to those 2 posts where I detailed everything. If not, just suffice it to say that I had trouble with my Dish box and they kept having to send me new ones mainly because their technicians didn't know how to resolve any problems. (As we sometimes say at my office "they're ate up with the dumbass" -- country bumpkin' saying, I know, but my family is from the deep south!) It took about 3 months to get everything sorted out and in the end, I kept the cable box that I initially had because they kept sending the wrong thing.

So anyways, I'm trying to get us situated to move next week. NEXT WEEK!! I've been so organized with our packing and really feel like I'm ahead of schedule on that. This week I've lined up the repairs that we have to do for the buyers, scheduled the movers, and am in the process of turning off our utilities. Everything has gone smoothly until today when I called Dish to cancel our cable. This should have been fairly simple, right? WRONG!!!

I was prepared for them to ask why I was canceling and not transferring our service to our new house, etc. I quickly explained that we're in a temporary situation (aka ... back home with the rentals') right now and wouldn't be needing service immediately. Then the lady begins to explain to me that I am under a 2 year contract, blah, blah, blah. I stopped her right there -- I'm not under contract! She claimed that I was because they had upgraded my receiver last January. I calmly explained to her that:

a) I had been having troubles with my service and they sent me a new receiver because they couldn't offer any other solution
b) new receiver didn't work and I actually sent it back, we went through 2 more before I ended up keeping my old receiver
c) they didn't explain to me that by sending a replacement (non-defective) receiver that I was agreeing to another 2 year contract

I went through all of this with her and once it was clear that she couldn't do anything, I asked to speak with a supervisor. She ended up putting me on hold and came back claiming that she spoke with a supervisor AND her executive team and that they would waive the cancellation fee since they could not find a signed document on file. I'm pretty sure this was one of those cases where they just try to scam their customers into paying a cancellation fee unjustifiably because this (alleged) conversation took all of 60 seconds.

I'm sure this post is pretty boring for anyone reading but there are 2 take-aways here:

1) Dish Network is the devil
2) whenever you feel that you are being treated unfairly by a customer service representative, ALWAYS escalate your problem to a supervisor -- if you don't ask for them to rectify it to your satisfaction they certainly won't do so

Oh and also, I'm not sure who our cable provider will be when we move but I can tell you who we won't be using!

17 Weeks Update

When thinking back to some of my friend's pregnancies and also my sister's, I remember I always looked forward for their weekly blog updates so that I felt like I knew what was going on in their and the baby's life (even if I already knew, its just fun to see the blog update with pictures). But with my pregnancy, I just don't feel like there is all that much to update from week to week. I mean, my belly is definitely getting bigger as evidenced in this picture


and I have my regular doctor's appointments and stuff like that but no major news. Its maybe a little harder that we don't actually have our house yet so it isn't like I have little nursery updates to talk about. I'm pretty sure we're going to close on the house about 5 minutes prior to Shim's arrival so that means we're going to rely HEAVILY on Meme (my mom) and Aunt Kimmie to help us throw it together!

I do have my big ultrasound appointment on the 15th, and this would be the time to find out the sex of the baby. But we aren't finding out so this appointment is mainly an anatomy checkup to make sure Shim has properly functioning organs and such. Speaking on the sex of the baby - if you have a second go to the poll on the right hand side of this blog and vote whether you think its a boy or a girl if you haven't already!

You know what I really really really miss and never thought I would? Cookie dough and cake batter. Those aren't things that I eat all that often but just the fact that I am unable to eat them right now drives me crazy. It is one of the few cravings I've had and the only one I'm unable to feed. I don't really miss wine or beer unless I'm in a social situation or if I've had a particularly long day. I do sometimes wish I could take a mucinex or sudafed but I wouldn't say those are things that I necessarily miss -- just necessities during this sinus season but I've been able to get through without them.

Only other update is the fact that our whole life is packed up in boxes. I literally spent all last week packing things up room by room. I'm to the point now where there isn't a whole lot I'm going to be able to do until the very last minute which is rapidly approaching. I'll be so much more relaxed once we get through the closing. Then maybe I can stop to enjoy the fact that it is Christmastime!

30, Pregnant, and Homeless

Geez! We have been so, so so busy. This post might get a little long, but I'm going to try to update what we've been doing for the past couple weeks! We have so much going on, and I really just haven't had much time for blogging.

A few days after my last post, I turned 30. I've been telling my parents for years that I was 'pushing 30' but now it is official, I am old. However, just because I'm old doesn't mean that I can't have multiple birthday celebrations like we used to do in college. Ben's parents were even sweet enough to drive down to Atlanta for the family celebration! We enjoyed a fabulous dinner at La Grotta -- even Ellie joined in the fun! Here is one of the only pictures we have from the night. Notice my new Tahitian pearls? Ben did a FANTASTIC job on my gift (and so did his mom as she was the one who shopped for them!)


In the midst of all my birthday celebrations, we have also been frantically looking for a house. I hadn't wanted to mention anything on the blog until our contract was binding, but we ended up getting an offer on our condo and are scheduled to close on December 17. Although it is a good thing that we have a contract, it also really put the pressure on us to find something.

The weekend of my birthday, Ben and I were driving to meet our realtor at a house that we both really liked but I knew it wasn't going to work for us. We both really wanted to make it work, because we were just so discouraged about everything we had found up to this point and this was a really great house. Anyway, on our way to the house we drove past a neighborhood that we have both always loved. Long story short, the old builder went bankrupt and had built out (and sold) about half of the lots. A new builder came in and bought the distressed land and is about to start construction. The downside here is that there is no standing inventory so that means we have to build! That sounds like so much fun to everyone, but the reality is that when you build, you wake up in the middle of the night worried about silly things like where to put cable jacks and whether or not you chose the right tile in your bathrooms so it really isn't all fun and games. The upside is that we will end up with a great house that we both really love. As of now, our tenative closing date on the house is April 8.

Just in case you forgot, Shim is due to enter the world May 16. So, yeah we're literally going to close on our house and move in about 5 minutes before Shimmy is born! Awesome. At least I won't be expected to do any heavy lifting! But yeah, just to reiterate I am 30, pregnant, and (almost) homeless. That sounds like a really great TV show doesn't it?