Incoherent Thoughts in the Wee Hours

Yes, it is indeed 4:30 in the morning. And I am up. Have been since about 3:30. I can't blame this entirely on the baby, though, since I am doing my best to hack up a lung. That is the fault of a coworker that wouldn't take a day off despite having the flu. The baby is causing the indigestion that finally drove me to the couch so I can sit up. But overall I am going to blame Dallas ISD, which was the only district left without a decision on school closings when Sergio checked at 3:30.

But they finally came through and SCHOOL IS CLOSED!

There is a child in all of us. I just realized that this statement is both figuratively and literally true of me.

There's a Nose Where My Belly Button Should Be!

We almost missed the six weeks belly picture! Can't have that. Here I am today at 30 weeks 6 days. I included a picture with my head in it this time because I was getting complaints that I didn't look like people expected when they saw me. Some people said I was smaller than they expected and some said bigger. Maybe having my head in the picture will allow for some sort of comparison. Either way, I am getting alarmingly large already. The other teachers at school don't let me forget this.


As for other pregnancy related topics, not much is new. She moves a lot. It is no longer a gas bubble feeling, nor is it something you have to search around for. As room runs out I feel her presence pretty much all the time. Her butt sits in my ribs and she kicks her feet across my belly. Watching this utterly creepy phenomenon has become our nightly entertainment.
She was particularly active while I was watching the inauguration the other day and it occurred to me that Obama's voice is probably nearly as familiar to her as mine and Sergio's. I just know she will be fussy sometime in the future and we will be able to play an Obama speech to calm her down. And if that doesn't work we can just find a House Hunters episode and let her listen to Suzanne Whang, who has to come in a close fourth for most familiar voice.

Children, Darndest Things, So On.

"Mrs. Barron, you want to hear a joke?" asked Jose.
I nod, expecting the usual ten year old stuff about chickens or knock, knock who's there.
"A mexican, an Ecuadorian, and an El Salvadorian are in a car. Who is driving?"
I ponder this for a moment before shrugging.














"Immigration!"

I laughed really hard. So did Sergio when I retold it to him. Is that being culturally insensitive?

Really? Tests to Graduate but Not to Become Parents? Good Thing.

We are getting some internet at the house right now, so I guess we better take advantage and post something here. Let's see...Sergio and I started Bradley classes last night. This involves going to an older woman's house in the suburbs and lying around on body pillows learning relaxation techniques that will hopefully help get us through natural childbirth. With five other couples. And as all awkward situations are for Sergio and me, it also involves many ill-timed jokes. We neither one seem to have the tact it requires not to make jokes ranging from poop to flatulence to fraud while being told to relax our muscles and breathe. We are also the slackers of the class. We were late to the first class, we have the closest due date, and we didn't take my nutritional log.
We are totally ready to be parents!

Movies

Horton Hears a Who ♣♣♣
It was cute

Stepbrothers ♣♣½
Pretty funny

Pineapple Express ♣♣½
A little different than the typical bromance Rogen fare, but funny in parts.

There Will Be Blood ♣♣♣½
I don't know how to rate this. We usually rate a movie based on what it set out to achieve, meaning that even a terrible horror movie could get a four. And this movie certainly seemed to do whatever it intended to do...but I want a refund on my three hours!

Just Checking In

For those of you wondering why there has been such a dirth of posting lately, there is no real excuse, save that Dawn continues to be pregnant and often uncomfortably so and I myself am attempting to begin a new, and last, semester of law school. (Reading that last sentence leads me to believe I have a problem with commas). In any case, stay tuned, continue checking in and I assure you that there will be posts, this is a sort of reverse Field of Dreams request; if you come then we'll build it. As bait I present a few of the events we are looking forward to in 2009: Ms. Rosalind Cate Barron will be born, I will graduate law school, I will pass the bar, Dawn and I will move back to Arkansas, Dawn and I will both be gainfully employed at the same time, etc., etc.

The One Where I Wave the White Flag

Washing my face in a Babies R Us water fountain can easily be counted among the many things I never really saw myself doing in life. But that is exactly where I found myself yesterday morning. I'll just start at the beginning.

Sergio asked me recently if I could be any more pitiful and I answered, "every time I think I have hit the bottom I find a whole new level of pitiful, so probably yes." And that has been my life for the last week and a half or so. It started with some mysterious symptoms while we were staying in Pocahontas. When I called to ask my midwife about them I was told to go immediately to the emergency room. Okay, sure. I don't think it is that big of a deal, but we are out of town, so I go. An infection, but probably not pre-term labor. Here, have an incredibly painful shot in the rear end and then you need to drive an hour and 20 minutes up the road to the nearest Ob/gyn office and be monitored there.
Two hours later, Sergio and I are sitting in the Newport, AR OB office surrounded by very nice people, but also lots and lots of abandoned bloody surgical instruments. Again I am placed in a butt-less gown and hooked up to monitors. As we suspected, nothing. But hey! Why not another painful shot in the rear for good measure?! You know it is going to be unpleasant when their words of comfort are, "okay, brace yourself for a big stick and then burning."
I get a prescription and we drive on down to Little Rock a day early. It is difficult to sit in the car because of my shots.
And then Christmas Eve and Christmas! Yay! Lots of fun and good food and watching my great Aunts and cousins and grandmother attempt guitar hero! Ashley, Carla, Mom...I need you to send me pictures because I was too lazy to get my camera out of the car. So the holiday itself was lovely, even the part where we didn't go to bed until 1:00 am and then my niece burst into the room at 5:30 am with, "Aunt Dawn, Uncle Sergio come on. Santa Claus already came!"
There were just two relatively small problems. The prescription I was given was causing the most insane heartburn I have had since I was on daily reflux medication, and I was coming down with a cold I had carried with me from Dallas. Separately these things are irritating. Together they are the makings of a horror film. And that brings us to yesterday at the Babies R Us.
I begin to have a coughing fit at the front of the store. The mucus in my head is so thick that I can't get a breath between the coughs. On top of this I can still feel my breakfast burning a hole in my chest. I take off toward the back where I had seen the bathroom. Three steps into this journey I vomit. I don't know what other people would do in this situation. Maybe there is something more rational than what I did. You'll have to let me know. I simply caught the vomit below my chin and held it there while I calmly continued to walk to the back of the store, all the time hoping I wouldn't cough again and splatter everywhere. By the time I make my way to the back I have snot dripping profusely out of my nose into the rest of the mess and I know I am about to lose it again if I don't find somewhere to unload. And then I get there. Ladies Restroom. Finally.
Closed for cleaning.
I can see the man inside cleaning, but can't explain why I need in. I open the door to the Mother's Room. No sink, no trash can, no toilet. At this point I am no longer calm, but start running toward the men's restroom. Before I get there I see the water fountain. And that I where I finally manage to let go.
And at the risk of coming off as a total hypochondriac I won't even go into the part about throwing my back out so that every time I cough my left leg buckles. Let's just all agree that my child might be trying to kill me, and pregnancy is stupid.
I don't know exactly what I am surrendering to, but I surrender. You win.
Happy New Year!

Seems Like Time For Words

This morning I woke up to news that a sand truck had hit ice and flipped over, but not to the news that Dallas schools were closed. And so I went to work, only sliding once on the drive, but twice on my feet. Pregnant Girl On Ice, Now Showing!
I had to stay late at work for parent night and while we waited for the event to begin a coworker checked the news. Turns out the bank up our street had been held at gunpoint the previous hour. A security guard had been shot, and the suspect had been killed. All the other schools in the area had been on lockdown, but not us. We were oblivious. It is events like this that cause people to make faces when I tell them what neighborhood I work in. Or the time all of our pipes were stolen so the bathrooms didn't work for a day. Because sewage pipes hold some sort of value, I guess. Good times.
When it was finally time to leave I realized I had misplaced my keys. This only took moments to clear up, but I hate that panicky feeling you get when you realize it is 7 pm and you might have no way home and your husband has the other set of keys but only a bike and it is dark and the roads are slippery.
And that was my day. How was yours?

BELLY

24 Weeks and 5 Days

Vogue

This is our lovely daughter posing in profile. You'll notice a cute button nose and the development of the signiture Barron cheeks. In the second piture Rosalind shows off some flexibility by nearly touching her head with her feet. Lets hope that ability will be used as a gymnast instead of as a rockette.