Baby. Baby. And more baby.

I have had a one track mind lately.  Baby.  Getting the nursery ready for the baby.  Getting the rest of the house ready for the baby.  Setting up the baby registry.  Thinking about baby names.  Buying diapers... for the baby. 

This is obviously normal.  Every new Mom (and Dad) go through big life changes when they are getting ready to bring home a new member of their family.  My problem is that I want it all done NOW.  I have 6 months before we will bring home our little bundle of joy, but that is not enough time.  No sir-ee Bob!  My craziness has been driving my husband nuts.  He told me the other day that I had to lay off the "Spring Cleaning" because he was running out of room in the back of his SUV to haul stuff to the dumpster.

I'm sure he gives me looks when my back is turned.  You know... the ones that say "OMG... what is going to happen when the baby is actually here?"  Or "I wish she would just stop moving, for one minute, and take a breath."  I think I make him dizzy.  Unfortunately, he knew this was coming.  I knew this was coming.

Luckily, we have an amazing network of family and friends that have been super supportive.  My Dad has been helping us every-which-way to get the house ready for the baby.  Bathroom remodeling, attic insulation, fresh drywall, and landscaping.  My best friend came over and spent hours helping me and my Dad, and I know that she is always there for me to lend a helping hand.  My amazing cousin has set herself up so that she can provide us with the best daycare ever!  We could not thank these people enough for what they have done for us already...

People always say that RAISING a child takes a village.  I say that GETTING READY FOR A CHILD and HAVING A CHILD takes a village as well.  I'm very thankful that I have a village behind us!

Crazy pregnancy dreams: Blog #1

My dreams of late have been very vivid and obscure... which should make for great blogging material!  I thought I would start posting regular blogs about my most interesting dreams and my own personal interpretations of them.  Then all of you can analyze them as well.  Who knows what we will come up with!

For the last month, I can't remember a night that I've slept straight through.  I get up about every 2-3 hours to go to the potty or to grab a glass of chocolate milk to fight heartburn.  I've read that this frequent up-and-down action all night interrupts my dream-filled REM sleep, thus making my dreams for vivid.  Also, since I'm awake so much during the night, I tend to retain more of my dream memories.

The first pregnancy dream I would like to share with you is about our vast solar system.  In this dream, I am in outer space.  However, it's more of my presence than my physical body.  Everything is very scaled down and close together, like I could reach out and touch all of the planets.  I am traveling around to discover life on other planets, and find it on Neptune.  Yeah!  I'm so very excited that Earth has made a new friend in Neptune and my immediate thought is to "move" Neptune closer to Earth.  

So I watch in my dream as the planet Neptune floats through the solar system, edging closer to Earth.  However, Neptune goes a little bit too far and ends up next to Venus.  Since it's too hot that close to the Sun, the planet starts to turn red.  I, of course, freak out.  I believe this is the point in the dream when my husband claims I was crying and moaning.

I convince Neptune to move back toward Earth, but Neptune has other plans.  Neptune, while he is excited to be "friends" with Earth, has decided that he wants to check out Jupiter.  I plead with him and explain that Jupiter is a big, gaseous giant and he will be swallowed up and destroyed if he goes anywhere near the planet.  (I remember having a "memory" in my dream about a satellite that had been sucked into Jupiter's gravitational pull and it exploded.)

So as Neptune starts bouncing closer to Jupiter, I start screaming "NEPTUNE!!!".  At which point my husband wakes me up.

Interpretation:  I didn't personally decipher this dream, but my husband did.  Neptune is my sister, who lives far away (only about an hour).  I wish that she lived closer, but obviously not too close (as my dream implies).  So Neptune heading toward Jupiter was like my dream subconscious warning me that while it would be great to have Neptune close, disaster may result.  Neptune could also be a metaphor for my parents, who live in the same city as my sister.