Jenny Ford, owner of Monkey-Toes.com, pregnancy week 33

Week 33 –

I have the energy (today) to get off my rounding rump and actually get things done around here (today).  At the top of my list of things to do (which I have lost several times) was to paint the little guy’s room.  Poor kid, I know he is the third, but really he is precious and special too, just like Thing 1 and Thing 2 (we jokingly call the girls this from time to time).  And you’d think that after almost 8 years of having no babies it would be like the first – where you’re done with everything down to the baby’s diapers being opened and placed on the changing table so his little butt just has to be placed on it (ok, I was never like that, but all you second and third timers know what I am talking about here).  Anyway, I painted the baby’s room – YAY ME!  Ya, only a few weeks and there’s nothing like a last minute renovation on your house to set the mood, or stress you out.  On the bottom half of the room I painted with chalkboard paint – and literally now, the whole bottom half of the room is BLACK chalkboard paint…even the floor.  Ya, I made an oopsie.  My hands have been quite non-functional these days.  They cramp up when I hold the paint brush, writing is achy, pretty much anything that calls for fine motor skills is either out all together or takes me forever because I have to give myself little hand massages about every 5 seconds.  I am such a “hands-on” (no pun intended) kinda person, I love to get dirty, so this little set back sucks.  Anyway, I was trying to pick up the little quart of BLACK chalkboard paint and just couldn’t grasp it right and about a third of it dumped on the carpet.  Oh thank the LORD that we are ripping out that carpet in a matter of weeks and replacing it with wood floors.  The “spot” is right along the wall and not in a location where a cute area rug might cover it.

Speaking of losing things lately, let’s talk memory…Speaking of losing things lately, let’s talk memory (ha, I am so funny).  In the past few days while running errands, I have literally had to walk around aimlessly looking for my car – remembering where I parked the car, something in the past, I prided myself on .  I find myself zoning out at the store, almost running into people with my empty shopping cart, forgetting half of what I was there to get (if only I hadn’t lost that darn list).  And now I’ve started forgetting what my husband’s schedule is.  I swear he looks at me like I am a big bag of nuts.  And I look back at him like I am stuck somewhere in la la land – in which I am.  I guess it’s a good thing I’m cute?!  What is that about?  As I was wandering through the Target parking lot yesterday (looking for my car or my list, I cannot remember) I had a thought – oh my gosh, what if I forgot the baby somewhere???  Am I capable of taking care of a baby in this frame of mind?  As far as I am concerned, I cannot even keep track of a 2 ton vehicle what about a 6 lb sleeping baby?  Would I park him somewhere and forget as I dream the day away looking for my to do list, or the car?  At least the girls are noisy and they just kinda follow along.  And as another example, because you don’t have enough here to REALLY drive the point home, I was helping at Ella’s Halloween party and explaining to the kids that they needed to cut up this “yellow” piece of construction paper and use it for a skeleton…I was immediately corrected, several times, that the color was orange.  Now I’m no dummy, I know the difference, but for some reason my brain would not grasp the color concept.  Thankfully, I had a room full of smarty pants 2nd and 3rd graders to correct me.  They’re so smart, they know everything.

I had a little check-in visit with an RN this week.  I actually lost a pound, unfortunately I was not able to choose which pound I wanted to lose – darn it!  I would order the pound under my chin to be gone.  My blood pressure is still within normal range too – 110/76.  And I also found out that if you have a tendency to develop high blood pressure in pregnancy the nurse recommended keeping your heart rate below 120 at the gym.  Totally manageable.  Since I have been focusing on moving more and eating less sodium I haven’t had as much swelling either.  I have been trying to keep major indulgences to at least 1 day a week – this week it was a cheeseburger and fries from a fave restaurant around here at J. Alexander’s – mmmm, the best burgers and shoe string fries EVER.  I actually only ate half of the burger and some of the fries – trying not to stuff myself so much that I was in pain, I have done that before and boy, it hurts.  But the problem was I was too full for dessert, so it didn’t feel like a proper cheat day (I can rationalize anything).  So the next night I went with my BFF (and best dessert buddy – BDB) to a restaurant and pounded a heavenly slice of Red Velvet Cake.  No, I didn’t eat the whole thing – the portion was HUGE, but I did enjoy about 2/3’s of it.  I’m going to start planning out next week’s cheat day…any suggestions?  I’m thinking pizza, and a pan of brownies – is that too much? Can you tell I love food?