to keep me from going directly to jail

the blog police called and said i must post again. okay so i am bad.
i will make this a quickie update post. here are some news tidbits buzzing around the Christopher household:

1---Tiny Troy, as i now call my baby bun i am baking, is not so tiny after all. ha ha I knew i was not crazy. he currently has estimated weight of 4.5 pounds. he is 78% percentile for a 31 wk old bun. another comparison is this: i get a weekly email from babycenter.com that reminds me what week i am. it was saying this week that my baby might weigh 3 pounds by this point. Looks like Troy will possibly follow in his big brother's footsteps: our mancat Little Dee who is so not little, who weighs 20 pounds but has been even porkier in the past. ha ha
my belly has been just bursting for what seems like forever. i was saying golly this boy is going to be a "big ole good un". my doc says if Tiny T continues at this growth rate he might weigh 8.5 at birth. i can handle that. but also dr. Jack says Troy might have had a growth spurt and now he could taper off and not be biggie size after all. so to sum up, dr. jack says "don't freak on me".
2---Tiny Troy is head down for the duration. He ain't goin nowhere ---he has no wiggle room. I have lucked out 2 for 2 thus far on baby's position. (jenny was head down)
I always thought it would be a bummer to have to have c-section just because of breech etc. having to do c-section for other reasons is another thing altogether.
on the other hand, if you have scheduled c-section cause of baby's position, that is like several weeks that you have to get used to the idea of surgery. If you are in labor for eons and then they say "surprise! c section right now!" then you are like huh huh HOLD ON A MINUTE at least i would be.
3---Jenny is 100% in the big girl bed!!!! more on that later.
4---Jenny's b'day party coming up end of June. yes a whole month early. hello i could go into labor on or before her actual b'day---july 24. and all moms know that the whole b'day party routine has all the potential to do things like make all your hair fall out...... or perhaps make you go into labor.
5---had a baby shower this weekend!!!! more on that later also. waiting for pictures from generous people who took some (aka you Nina) and also must examine pictures closely for a few days to estimate how fat I look before they make the cut. (where was my camera? oh at home with dead battery as usual.)
6---8th wedding anniversary coming up!!!! freakin old people is what we are. i was thinking today that in 8 more yrs Jenny will be TEN.
we have no plans yet, but will probably celebrate on june 3rd and 4th since those are will's off days.

okay that update will have to satisfy you for a bit, Officer Burleson (and any others of you who were getting impatient).

New Room for Jenny ---update

We are doing big girl bed swap. We have ~3 months til baby boy makes his debut.

Will painted Jenny's new room yellow at the end of April. Next we had to get a mattress. Then he installed a baby gate on her door. And last but not least he put together the bed rail.

(oh yeah----i bought what i hope is a fabulous waterproof mattress pad at the mattress store. It is called "Protect-A-Bed" and it is also good for allergies. So far I can say that it is comfortable and doesn't make crackle noise or make you sweaty. Lets see if it will stand up to wetting the bed..........)
The room is not totally complete, but here are the recent pictures:

Party on the new mattress
Little Dee was guest of honor

Playing on her new bed with dolly the day of her first big girl bed nap

Cage door (heh heh) This is my attempt to keep her from roaming the house at night----too bad that she can already open it. Maybe I can just put some fear in her.....

Yeah so yesterday was the big day. In preparation, I told her a few times that she was going to nap in big girl bed. Of course it has never done me any good to try to inform her of how things will go (in an effort to keep her from being scared) This has proven uneffective so far for doc office, public change table, bible class jitters, etc.....

Anyway, at about naptime yesterday she was playing alone in her new room. I went to check on her and found her snuggling in bed with blankie. Perfect! I asked if she was ready to nap---"yeah" she says. "sleepy" she says. So I covered her with special pink blanket and said naptime and shut the gate. No disputes. I am in the den going "ha ha ha yeah right that is too good to be true" of course after about 1 minute she came to the gate and said calmly "ope nit, ope nit" Back to bed i took her and that is when she started to realize my plan. Totally did not like it. Had to scream a good bit. She would do less screaming actually if I left her sight so that is how I rolled. Then she eventually pooped in diaper and got it on her hands and came to the gate like that (not too rare for her to do this unfortunately). "poo poo mommy!" So one clean diaper, one handwashing, one hand geling and one more lecture about not touching poop later--- back to big girl bed she went. Not happy again but she eventually conked.

It wasn't pretty....but this was the end result-----
first nap in big girl bed

Today she is in there again for nap and it was still an ugly drama but not quite as ugly or long as the first day. Here's hoping each day gets better and better...........

Rock City day o' fun

Jason, Valerie, Jenny, Will and me at the big lookout over "7 states"

On April 25th we spent the Saturday with our friends Jason and Valerie. They are from north AL. Jason and Will met at Auburn while trudging thru engineering school together.

We had a great day! Jenny's behavior was top of the line by my standards (and those are rigid standards) and also we had good weather. And I ----the out of breath fattie with the creaking hips---managed all the exercise just fine.
Will and I had never been to Rock City but we did know about the "no strollers". So we borrowed a backpack from the Reynolds to tote around our midget mama. Thank you again Reynolds!!! I was not sure how would she like it?? Some kids do not like it and most kids want to get out and walk at some point. Heaven knows Jenny asks alot to get out of the stroller and walk. Do you know....... that girl LOVED the backpack!!?? Cried when we took her out! Did not ever ask to walk. So that turned out well. Cause it is not the best place to have your 21 month old running loose. Oh I forgot to mention the one issue and that was----Will could not fit thru two of the passes ("needles eye" and "fat man squeeze") wearing the pack. So he took it off, left Jenny sitting in it, and sort of shimmied her thru the pass sideways. it was a sight---and i am sure that he worked some odd arm muscles that usually don't get alot of use.

This pic reminds me of a song from Elmo's world:
"I'm a chickadee and I live in a tree,
with my mommy, my daddy, and baby makes three
and we're a family, a family!"

Jenny takes in the fabulous view

The Christophers---all 4 of us

Backpack, backpack

After we walked the trail, we bought fudge ---then headed to downtown Chatt to eat at Sticky Fingers.
Oh yeah another huge bonus for the day: our best ever score for a downtown Chatt parking spot---right in front of sticky fingers' door! let the records show......

So i had to pull a diaper change in the sticky fingers bathroom and you know I was saying my prayers once more. As an update, in case i have not given an update lately, Jenny's rage level during a public diaper change revolt has dwindled by about 50%. As soon as I lay her down to change, she begins to scream bloody murder like I am pulling her toenails out, just like she always has, but at least she lays there and lets me actually change the diaper instead of the old twist, shout and stand procedure. Well in addition this time she actually STOPPED crying about half way thru the change which is another big step in the right direction.
Anyway after our meal, we walked downtown for awhile---(Northshore, over the pedestrian bridge). Then we headed for Soddy--- and more importantly ---Nana's frozen custard. After indulging there, we went back to the house and Jason and Valerie headed home. Jenny took her nap then at 6pm and so did we. She was a pooped out monkey. As she was laying down she wimpered some about Jason leaving her ha ha. But she did SOOOOOOOO well all day not going bizzerko about nothing --not having nap drama during the usual nap hours or anything.

And i should add that Jason and Valerie were very good sports!---- riding in the backseat all smooshed up together with Jenny and making sure Beauty and the Beast was playing all day. Will said it should not bother them to be smooshed up together cause they are still honeymooners--ha
But they are probably still singing to themselves..... "Bonjour! Bonjour!"

I will say i was very tuckered out and majorly enjoyed that late nap. lots of exercise for me and the belly. but it is good for me.

6 month belly reveal

okay here finally is a picture of my baby belly. maybe i need to remind you that i still have 3 months to go!!!! how much bigger can it get??!!
as probably all of you have heard me whining about, i am already waddling around in discomfort equivalent to my 7th month of pregnancy with jenny. and i have been on this discomfort level for 2 months already! ha!

my current complaints are:
1--there ain't enough room for him in there--- i can somewhat alleviate this by raising my arms to make more room for him
2--muscles and bones or joints are just killing me------ feel like i have worked out all live long day ----and as far as "bone pain" i just feel about 95 yrs old like my whole lower body is arthritic. i remind myself of the tin man creaking around needing to be oiled.
3--sleep is misery. sooooooooooo not sleeping due to all of the aching, and lets not forget that i can't sleep on belly or back, so its flip and flop, flip and flop my giant belly back and forth all night.

okay so if you have somehow missed out on my whining, then there you go-- you are all caught up.