Daycare Woes

I thought we had this pretty much in the bag. Turns out I was wrong.

Months ago we talked to this nice lady who does home daycare. She comes highly recommended and we were comfortable with her. The only hitch was that she wasn't sure if she would have room for him, but she was pretty sure she would. If not, her daughter also does daycare and she lives around the corner from us. She isn't even close to being full so it sounds like if one doesn't have room, the other probably will.

Today I went on a little quest, trying to find out about other daycare options as far as centers go. The FAA has an awesome, 3 star, NAEYC accredited daycare but we'd pretty much ruled it out based on cost. But I found out that there is a subsidy program so I started looking into that, and trying to figure out if we could get some help through Darrell's new position at Tinker. No dice on the FAA daycare, and Tinker only offers a subsidy program for the daycares on the base. They look awesome (also 3 star, NAEYC) and would be affordable, but it wouldn't work right until Darrell gets out of school. He could take Ethan to the center, but I'd have to drive 20 miles to pick him up which hardly seems practical or worth the savings. We decided to get him on the waiting list anyway though, since I'm actually going to start applying for jobs out there.

Anyway, back to the home lady. She had asked us to call after school started so she could tell us something definitive, so I did this afternoon. To my dismay, she doesn't have room. The girl she thought she wouldn't have ended up coming back this year. No problem, I rang her daughter. SHE is full too.

Ugh. I'm so frustrated. We went from having several options to seemingly none and time is running out now. I have some other names to call but I'm tired and discouraged. If we go with a home, how in the world can I figure out who to trust and who not to? I don't want to put him in a center that I'm not 100% sure we can trust, and I really don't want to put him in one that's not nationally accredited.

I feel bad because Darrell has been asking me to call for weeks but I figured it was all going to work out, and she asked us to call back when school started, so that's what I did. But maybe she would have known sooner, meaning we would have known sooner. Dang it.

I need a cookie.

Randomness from yesterday

I DID walk on the treadmill last night, thank you very much. I really needed some good food so I got industrious and made a chicken pot pie. It took a while because I puttered around trying to figure out just what to do, but once it was in the oven I walked for 20 minutes. I had a hard time with my right hip though, and ended up having to walk pretty slow.

Tonight should be the same drill, minus the pot pie and hopefully the hip pain.

The pot pie turned out amazingly well, actually. Darrell came home and since it was still sitting on the stove, he went ahead and ate some. I think he said something along the lines of it being as good as "the real thing." I have stood against banquet and triumphed! Muhhahahaha! Actually he said that moments before biting into an icky pearl onion which was part of the vegetable mix I used. I thought I had sufficiently warned him, but I guess not! I don't do onions like that either, so I'll be getting a different veggie mix next time. Here is a picture, because I was just in that kind of mood. It tasted much better than it looks!

I read yesterday that before ultrasound was a (mostly) accurate way of dating pregnancy, doctors would advise women to note the day they first felt baby movement, count forward 22 weeks and that would be an indicator of the time they would deliver. It provided fairly accurate results apparently. So. Twenty-two weeks from the time I first felt Ethan kick will be Tuesday, November 18th. Since I'm convinced that he's coming late anyway, that's the date I'm going with. This is not mother's intuition speaking, just spectulation.

Darrell is convinced he's coming early. I have to say, as long as it's within a safe range, I won't be bothered by that in the least. Providing he's not born on Halloween, that is.

Treadmill Report

There has been no activity as of yet this week on the dear old treadmill. I did spend almost two hours walking around the commissary yesterday though, (I am a slow and disorganized shopper) and then came home and stayed on my feet nearly all evening, making cookies for an event at Darrell's work. (And guess what I have for lunch today? Talk about the opposite of exercise.)

So, that counts for something, right? I must walk tonight though. I can make it 25 minutes at the very least, I think.

How Embarassing

As aforementioned, the pants I'm wearing today are kind of tight. They're maternity, but they're the type that has elastic in the back and still opens and closes in the front. About an hour or so ago I decided that I'd had enough of them cutting into my belly. I'd made my bathroom run and filled my water so I knew I wouldn't be getting up for a while. My cube is pretty private, Nelda can see into it and when she's working her back faces me. My shirt is long enough that even if I had to turn and talk to someone they wouldn't know the difference. So, I unbuttoned them. That felt so good that I unzipped them. 'What's the harm,' I was thinking. (Can you see where this is going?)

So, a few minutes ago, Lisa unexpectedly popped into my cube and asked if I could run downstairs with her to get a box that she'd brought me - she has pink-eye and and had to leave early. So, without even thinking I popped up and started to follow. Ugh. Thankfully I didn't make it out of my cube before I realized what I was doing, but it was still mortifying. Thankfully it was a woman... I can't imagine if it was one of the several fifty-ish men around here.

Needless to say my pants are buttoned now and I'm counting the hours to the end of the work day.

Weekly development - 29 Weeks

I couldn't really find a weekly development that I liked. They're basically all very short and say the same things. Since baby is fully developed and just needs more time to grow and mature, he's growing pretty quickly, and his activity has increased. He's getting stronger (no joke!) and fatter.
Mommy is getting more and more uncomfortable.

This is all very true. Each time I think I've gotten used to his little love kicks, he sends a super duper karate move at me that takes my breath away. Normally it's not painful, just shocking.

After months of waiting for my belly to show, it's finally protruding quite visibly and growing exponentially. I almost feel bigger each day. In fact, I realized that a pair of maternity pants that was a little tight around the waist last week was almost impossible to get into comfortably today. My only good black ones too. Darn it. I have them sort of resting under my belly, but they're cutting in pretty badly. I refuse to buy more maternity clothes!

The new beach-ball shape has really contorted my spine, apparently and it's becoming increasingly painful to be on my feet for long periods of time. I did get somewhat over the hump and spend some time on the treadmill though. Nothing spectacular, I made it only twice during the week, but I have much better things in mind for this coming week. It's time to start doing preggo exercises too, like pelvic tilts and squatting. I've been doing that as well, and I need to pull my other book out because I know there are more suggestions. Oh joy.

I think he has hiccups!

Baby has been extremely active today, but right now I'm just feeling a rythmic thumping, but not really in a particular spot.  I think the little goober has the hiccups.

 

Awww....  I wonder if he hates the hiccups, or if he thinks they're kind of cool and interesting?

Cravings...

People have been asking what I'm craving and I've had to disappoint them by telling them I haven't had any weird cravings. (Oh, and they so wanted to laugh at me too!) I've drank more chocolate milk than usual, I tell them, and for a while I was digging into the ice cream a little too hard.

Shortly before lunch today it hit me that I DID NOT want the ham and cheese sandwich that I'd responsibly brought. It's worth mentioning that I wasn't feeling an urge to go trecking to the cafeteria for a slice of pizza or a burger, and I didn't feel like hitting the vending machines for chocolate or raiding my drawer for ramen.

No, what I really wanted was to drive straight home, scramble some eggs and lovingly sandwich them between two slices of buttered toast.

Obviously that wasn't an option so I grudgingly ate my sandwich, some doritos and a mini-bag of mini-cookies (made with mini M&Ms and mini-chocolate chips). Filling my stomach helped, but the desire for the scrambled eggs only faded a little. It didn't consume me, but it was definitely the only food that sounded remotely appealing.

So, guess what I just ate for dinner.

If I wasn't full I'd eat another. And another. I guess there are worse things in life.