My new BFF: the swimming pool

The swimming pool has fast become my BFF this summer. Well, I suppose I shouldn't say Best Friend Forever...it should be BFWP-Best Friend While Pregnant. And it's not just because the temperature outside has been hovering in the upper nineties with humidity the last few days, although that does play a definite part. It's really because a swimming pool is the only thing that allows me to achieve a pain-free state now heading into week 25 of this pregnancy.

I'm not sure exactly what week it was that I realized my body suddenly felt like it had aged about 60 years in the span of a few days, but it was probably sometime over our vacation a few weeks ago when I had some major belly poppage. The sad thing though is that I don't remember feeling like this until about week 30 with Jack. I'm not quite to the miserable, is-this-over-yet feeling, but it's definitely a little uncomfortable now with lower back pain and sore hip joints!

Anyway, the pool is so wonderful for pregnant women because of a little thing called buoyancy, which basically means my back gets a break from holding up my belly and the water does all the rest for me. It really does almost feel like I'm not even pregnant anymore to feel the relief in my joints, and gives me hope that I will return to a pain-free state here in a few months. At least this pain is all worth it in the end!

What was your favorite way to relieve stress and/or pain during pregnancy?

Starting over

A friend of mine emailed me today asking about sleeping suggestions for her 2 week-old baby who apparently sleeps just fine when he's held, but won't sleep more than an hour if he's laid down in the crib. It made me realize just how far Jack has come in 19 months, and how much I already take for granted that he can do on his own! I'm mentally preparing myself to start this whole process all over again with the new baby come November, oh boy!

It's easy to focus on what he either can't do or can't do well yet, like eat with utensils without too much mess, walk down the stairs, dress himself, swim, or use the potty. But, when I think of my friends who have just had new little babies, I'm reminded of just how much he CAN do now, and how much easier it's made our life. The sleeping thing is huge, it's great that we can put him down around 7:30 and not hear from him until 6:30 the next morning, plus one consistent nap in the afternoon. It's nice that he can feed himself reasonably well and eat a variety of foods so that we're not constantly having to make him a separate meal of baby food. It's nice he can walk/run pretty well so that I don't have to carry him everywhere. And it's really wonderful that he can entertain himself more now and communicate better with us using the words he's learning each day.

It's really been a lot of fun to watch him grow up and it's amazing how much they learn in a short time! Now, if I could just get him potty trained by the time Anna gets here....yes I know, a girl can dream can't she?

Random Thought #7: Those inopportune ringtones

Remember back when ringtones were the cool new way to further announce our individuality to the world? I remember back when even having something like 20 different types of those mechanical ringtones on a cell phone was just all the rage, and with each new generation of cell phone came an exponential rise in the variety of tones available. We went from options like "Chimes low", "Chimes high", "Alert", "Bells", etc to a selection of just about every possible audible sound or collection of sounds a person could dream up. I hesitate to use the word music or musical ringtones here given some of the junk labeled as such...just think "Macarena" and you get my drift.

Anyway, the funny thing with ringtones is that no matter how cool, hip, or cutting-edge they are to their owner, there is nothing more embarrassing/annoying than having the ringer set to high and then having someone call the phone at an inopportune time, like in the middle of a professor's lecture or a group prayer. Or, say when you accidentally forget your phone in your kid's diaper bag and the nursery staff get to enjoy your "music" selection.

No, I was not the mom who left her phone in her child's bag, but I was one of the nursery staff in the 12-18 month class at church this morning that got to listen to what I guess is a popular tune on the radio (?) when one of the diaper bags came to life courtesy of a misplaced cell phone. The four of us adults in the room had finally gotten two very fussy little boys calmed down and all the kids in their seats for snack time. It was pleasantly and unusually quiet as the kids munched on goldfish for a while (a rare feat to manage with 10 of them), when very loudly and clear as day we heard something to the effect of, and this is a woman singing mind you, "I kissed a girl and I liked it", which repeated itself a few times as most ringtones do. Besides the fact it was totally random, I can't quite sum up our surprised reactions to that song blaring in a church nursery. I guess irony comes in there somewhere? I was just very thankful that the kids in our room were not quite to the repeat-everything-they-hear stage, or we would have had some major explaining to do to their parents, especially those of little girls! Yikes!

So just a friendly reminder that your ringtone does say a lot about you, and it might not really be the message you'd like people to get! And remember to consider your child's nursery staff in your selection of ringtones..."Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" works for me :)

Time for a change

The pregnancy hormones must be in full swing...I can't be satisfied with any of the blogger template choices at the moment! At least this one is a little easier to read...hmmm, this is probably going to change again...

The Lynn's have it...

After giving this some more thought, I think the Lynn's have it...Anna Lynn it is! Thanks for the input :)

Little Egg gets a big girl name

I mentioned back when we had our first ultrasound done for baby number two that Bob, true to his logical, software engineer roots, decided to give the baby the obvious but oh-so-bland name of "Little Egg". And no, we didn't really walk around referring to the baby that way, but it was very like Bob to come up with something so silly with a perfectly straight face...

I'm happy to announce that "Little Egg" has now graduated on to the much more appropriate name of Anna. We're still trying to decide on a middle name, probably something along the lines of Lynn, Katherine, or Elizabeth.

The usual question that follows somewhere in the name discussion are what factors did/did not go into the name selection. I admit that our choice of names (both Jack and Anna) aren't based on some noble reason like a family name passed down, though my mom's middle name is Ann. It's been our (ok, really my) attempt at lessening the fodder for the name calling games that will inevitably come during elementary school with the last name Looney.

With Jack I just wanted a simple, short, masculine boy name that wouldn't sound ridiculous at his high school graduation, but would look good on a business card someday. You know, the name Lancelot Looney just doesn't have quite the same ring as Jack Looney.

It's been harder this time with a girl name. I again wanted a nice, short name, preferably with just one syllable. Of course the name I really liked for a girl just happened to be Jill, but no way would I put my kids through Jack and Jill jokes above and beyond what they'll already hear with Looney. Then again, given the Looney moniker, people would probably cut me some slack if I had gone with Jill, right?

After ruling out Jill, I also ruled out a lot of other girl's names with the sound of "ee" on the end, like Riley, Natalie, etc., because I didn't want her first name to rhyme with her last name. I went through that in high school when I went by Katie (with a maiden name of Petree) and didn't like it much, so Katie got shortened to Kate in college. Anyway, eventually it was narrowed down to Anna, Jenna, or Paris (just kidding), and we know too many little Jenna's, so Anna began to slowly grow on us over the last month. And that's how Little Egg got her big girl name...

Too bad vacations end!

We had a great time relaxing up in the cooler weather of Bristol, VA last week with Bob's mom and dad. Very pretty country out in Tennessee and western Virginia to say the least...I was surprised at how nice northern Alabama was as well once you start to hit the foothills of the Smokies north of Birmingham. My only complaint was the stretch of I-10 just east of Beaumont that was shut down to one lane on a Friday afternoon before a holiday. And when I say one lane, I mean one lane for BOTH directions. We moved only a few miles in an hour as the traffic alternated between west and east bound over that one lane. Pure genius on someone's part...luckily that genius was not the one on duty when we came back through because the traffic flowed smoothly.

Jack held up like a trooper. 2 days of 7-9 hour car rides going there and coming back are a lot for anyone, but especially an 18-month old. It helped if one of us sat in the back passenger seat next to him for some entertainment value, as did an occasional viewing of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, and the Incredibles.

We went to Bays Mountain National Park in Tennessee one morning, which was gorgeous. They have some small animal exhibits that were great for Jack. The other highlight was the Bristol 4th of July parade (held on the 5th?). We got there 15 mins before the parade started and still got a great spot up front along the street.



Small town parades are a lot of fun because of the smaller crowds. Jack got a bird's eye view of the floats, fire trucks, and other noisy vehicles coming down the main drag through town. Trying to attend a parade in downtown Houston would be maddening...you'd have to arrive hours in advance and still probably wouldn't get a good view of the street. Plus, for a pregnant woman, it was nice to be able to locate a bathroom quickly after the parade had finished! Jack waved at everything...

Haley, our dachshund, went to the "Pet Hotel and Spa", or my parent's house as Bob likes to call it, for some R&R while we were gone....as if she doesn't get enough R&R napping all day?

The only downside to vacations is that they end and it's catch up time back in the daily grind :)