Prenatals are kind of pointless

I have never really minded going to the doctor. I don't really recall going for anything other than illness and sports and camp physicals. No white coat syndrome here. I even loved going to the dentist. (They gave me a new toothbrush, awesome floss, and a little toy. Like a pencil. I still like a good pencil.) But lately going to the doctor has taken on a whole new meaning. I have to step on the scale.

The scale and I have not been on great terms for 10 years now. Before that we just ignored each other for the most part. After pregnancy #1 which I gained 50 pounds, took 30 off at delivery, and then put that back on with a few more, I have really not liked weighing myself. The next 2 pregnancies weren't bad. I lost a lot in the first tri. Didn't gain much overall. However, the doctor appointments always kind of bugged me. With #2, I was doing a VBAC. I was always kind of nervous about what silliness would come about at the appointments. With #3, I had successfully VBAC'ed once, so I figured it would be a breeze. I ended up in all out war with my OB and switched OB's late in the game.

This time I am back with my awesome OB that I finished my last pregnancy with. She is very accommodating to all of my requests. Right now I'm dealing with sticking myself several times a day to appease those who must be assured that I don't have gestational diabetes. I'm confident that won't be a fight at all, since the numbers are wonderful. The number that is *not* wonderful, however, is the aforementioned number on the scale. I should give myself credit. At my last appointment, 22 weeks into this pregnancy, I was still even from pre-pregnancy. I didn't even lose that much in the first tri. I would kind of bounce around the same weight. In the 5 weeks since I've seen her, though, I've put on at least 10 pounds. It's actually probably closer to 15. *blush* I keep telling myself that only 15 pounds at 27 weeks really isn't that bad. Gaining it all in 5 weeks is not good, though. I know where it comes from. I have a serious Coke/Pepsi addiction. And a severe aversion to water. Part of the water thing comes from the fact that if I drink it too late in the afternoon/evening, I might as well just sleep in the bathroom for as many times as I have to get up during the night. A bigger part of it is that I just don't like the taste of it. And I'm not really thirsty. I drink the cola more for the caffeine, the taste, and to drag my blood sugar out of the gutter if I haven't felt like eating. Unfortunately, I have felt like eating. A lot. I've given up cute phrases like "the baby wants..." because really, I can admit that the sour patch kids are for me.

My prediction for my prenatal visit in 1.5 hours is that I go in, get weighed, feel nauseous, Matt will hop on the scale to make me feel better but it will be less than me now and it will NOT make me feel better. The doc will come in, say be lovely and wonderful, tell me I look great but comment briefly on my weight gain. We will listen to heartbeat which will sound great. We will talk about my at-home blood sugar testing. We will the talk about the follow-up ultrasound scheduled for next Monday. I will make some comment about how exiting my 20's is really making me feel old. She will float off to her next patient and I will silently resolve to NOT gain another 15 pounds before my next visit. Then I will come home and eat a Kit Kat. Just to make myself feel better.

This is probably my last pregnancy, though, so I should be eating what I want and just dieting longer afterward...right?

And in other non-dog news...

We officially own more computers than pets. And there are an equal number of pets and computers that actually work. *blush*

We have had an HP desktop for years. I think this thing is 6 or 7 years old. It's pretty slow, crammed with a lot of junk, and fairly unreliable. When I was in school after I had Tevin, we bought an HP laptop. That started not working so well maybe 3 years ago. We bought another HP laptop because it was a great deal at Wal-Mart. In retrospect, not a great deal, but at the time it was. Very shortly after we bought laptop #2 and external hard drive #1, laptop #1 took its' final breath and is now resting in peace...somewhere in the house. We weren't using the desktop and I don't exactly remember the details of it, but we became the owners of a Dell laptop. Time frame for laptops #2 and #3 were close. Laptop #2 is running Vista on 1Gb of RAM. Laptop #3 is running XP on 2Gb of RAM, I think.

So...with Matt back in school now, he expressed a desire to get a Netbook. His reasoning was sound. Compact, inexpensive, he's able to slip it in his bag and bring it to school to take notes on and take it to work with him. I liked the idea of having a computer with a functioning webcam installed. Since we got a PHENOMENAL deal on the kids' swingset, we had lots of tax return money left over. So, we ordered him his Netbook. It came today. It's cute. :)

If you're actually keeping track, that makes 5 computers, 4 of which are functioning. No, we didn't get rid of a pet. We still have 5. Yesterday, Matt texted me from work to tell me that they had a "can't pass up" deal. It's a monster laptop. We've always said that when the desktop retired, we would get a laptop and just station it on the desk. This laptop just screamed "buy me" to us. It is a 17" HP (hiss boo, I really hate HP, but this deal...) running Vista (again, boo, but we can get the Windows 7 upgrade dirt cheap through school) with 4Gb RAM, a 500Gb hard drive, a blueray lightscribe drive, an HDMI output, a webcam, and a FULL keyboard. Including 10 key! He couldn't buy it until today since it was marked UNDER $400 yesterday. When he got to work today, it was still there and he was able to buy it. His co-worker Chester is jealous.

Under $700 for a Netbook and a Laptop. As much as I can complain about spending that much money, at least now I can smack him if he even starts looking at computers again for years to come.

Remember the movie Beethoven?

I have officially recorded it on my DVR and have to watch it regularly to remind myself that St. Bernards are great dogs and someday she might save my child from a swimming pool.

Sasha is SUCH a puppy. She's really your standard 9 month old puppy. Playful, adorable, and sassy. She has a tendency to chew on things once in awhile, if she can't find her bone. She will flop herself down on the floor if we're trying to guide her somewhere. The other day we came home from the store and discovered it had snowed in our dining room. Okay, so it wasn't snow. It was a bag of poly fill I had just bought. Apparently she was helping us free the poly fill from that evil bag that was holding it hostage. And then yesterday morning in the 5 minutes I was gone getting the babysitter, she also freed the new potting soil I had bought. Again, all over my dining room. Maybe she wanted to remind me that it's spring and we have moved from snow to dirt.

*chanting I love my puppy, I love my puppy, I love my puppy*

Oh, and 4 foot fences really aren't a challenge for a giant dog. She just kind of hops over it. She had been getting out a hole in the gate until we fixed that. Now we have the pleasure of investing some money and a lot of time to put a 3 foot rabbit fence on the top of the fence. It's working well on the 50 feet of fence Matt put it on one side of the yard. Not so much on the other side. We did find her weakness, though. She loves cheese By treating her with cheese, we pretty much have her (warning: bad pun alert) following us around like a puppy dog and eating out of our hands. So, I grab a piece of string cheese and follow her when she escapes. I just rip off a piece, toss it at her, and when she realizes I have cheese, she is there. Then I can put a leash on her and drag her back to the house. Training class signups are tomorrow. We think she is very trainable. She's smart and food-motivated. She's just such a puppy!

I remember when Casey was this age. I wanted to get rid of him. All the time. And now, 7 years later, he's the best dog. I can NOT wait 7 years, but I'll give her a chance to calm down and learn to be a good puppy. I really hope she decides to do this sometime before she hits 100 pounds. Wrestling is fun. Wrestling with a monster puppy at 5am when Matt leaves the house isn't quite as fun.