no boys allowed in the room!!!!

Hi, carl!!!!!! Thank you but for various non cancer related reasons his surgery was extra complicated so now he starts all the fun of 6 months' recovery! That'll be a blast for my mom I'm sure.

BUT TELL US ABOUT YOU. How are you feeling? Do you have a glow? Are you eating strange things yet? (Stranger than normal, anyway--don't think I've forgotten about scrapple.) Tell us childless withered husks all about it!!

Six months! Yikes. My heart goes out to him. And your mom, and you.

Me... I'm in the third trimester now so tired a lot. I'm possibly glowing, actually yes. I'm really into milk. I've got a high risk thing going on that requires extra monitoring, so I go in every week for ultrasounds and non-stress tests, which can be stressful but it's nice to get regular reports on how awesome the baby is.

I was planning on posting more about that on the pregnancy commiseration thread when I know a little more about how things are going to go because I don't want it to be an outlet for me to just be randomly anxious about things, just an FYI for people who were interested.

Yes that's fine, I'll read all about it there too, I was just happy to see you and thought, I wonder what strange and/or wonderful things are happening in her life. And I'm tired and still have to photograph an apple betty, which means staging it on a nice tablecloth and everything. So obviously I'm procrastinating.

FYI I am now craving apple betty.

With whipped cream.

And a glass of milk.

Well that's fair because I'm drinking tall, cold glasses of milk vicariously through you RIGHT THIS SECOND.

i got invited to a baby shower. i have never been to a baby shower. i went to a bridal shower once. what should i know about baby showers?

First of all ascertain whether it's okay if everyone but the pregnant lady drinks. Sometimes there's no drinking, in solidarity or something idk? and that's usually a bad sign.

otm

sober baby showers can be v creepy

I haven't been to a baby shower possibly since high school though and that was thrown by church ladies for a teen mom so my experience may not be typical.

I keep making posts that keep getting eaten so speaking if eating and baby showers:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/baby-shower-cakes-made-of-nightmares

I was still in the process of murmuring, "No, no, no, no" from #10 when I got to #14 and started laughing hysterically.

#28!!!

I hate doctors too, but I am really glad I started looking for ones who listen to me. Now I have a really awesome dietician and nurse practitioner (both women) who are finally giving me the care I needed. But they don't take insurance, of course.

Okay here's an update: I have officially turned a corner into HUNGRY ALL THE TIME land. Holy shit. I got up at midnight to eat cheese, had a Popsicle at 4:30, and had Jeff make me toaster waffles when he got up to run at 6. Then I went back to sleep until now and I am starving again.

Run Francie... I don't know if I can control the hunger...

I think she's under the bed if you're looking.

I got up and ate oatmeal and a banana and now we're out in search of brunch.

This is how vampires must feel.

Well, let us know if the pulsing vein in Jeff's neck starts to look tempting--until then enjoy the fried eggs and pancakes!

carl i think you may have a dangerous addiction
to F{BL)OOD

what should i know about baby showers?
That they are the worst.

otm

People having babies like Target gift cards, and if they don't, FUCK 'EM.

i think there is a registry thing that the hostesses sent guests a link to

I have never known a parent-to-be who did not appreciate a gift card if you don't feel like futzing around with something from the registry.

I think the only potentially wrong move is getting a thing that is not on the registry or getting a different version of something that they registered for (admittedly may be projecting there).

with these online registry things, it keeps track of whether someone else has bought a particular item, I'd hope?

The last baby shower I went to was men and women (which I am sort of against in principle) and it was fun.

The grandfather-to-be found his son-in-law's brother asleep in truck bed so I guess someone had fun.

It does if the person buys the thing through the registry or a parent makes the thing as purchased, but there's no guarantee. Just get a gift receipt and it will all be fine.

I think the thing w both wedding and baby showers is that many times the other guests are all family or friends of your friend that you don't know. Sometimes that's great bc what you have in common is how much you love the bride/mother-to-be but sometimes you distinctly don't click with the other guests and you basically have to put up and shut up, them's the rules. This is where drinking helps.

Of course if it's mostly people you already know and like, then you can safely think of both types of occasion as just awesome parties to celebrate for and with your friend.

FYI with those online registries that corral a bunch of websites you usually buy on one site then go back to the list to indicate you purchased the item.

does anyone in this piece experience super localized pain on both sides w/ ovulation?

Sometimes yeah.

Well at least Ive always assumed thats what it was from the timing.

ive just started getting that. i dont know why it waited til now. haw.

Yeah I (used to) get that every month starting around my mid/late-20s, on both sides but worse on one side. It's called "mittelschmerz" which is fun to say and not so fun to have.

Painkillers didn't have much effect and it was getting so bad I just wanted to spend 2 days a month curled up in a ball so I went on the pill to stop ovulation, which came with some exciting side-effects of its own. I've been off the pill for 2-3 months now and it hasn't been as bad as it used to be but I suspect it's building back up.

Yeah its a sharper more kick in the guts pain.

I get that too! Only since I've been off the pill though. It's a good reminder for me that I am about to board the rollercoaster, so it doesn't really bother me that much.

Huh, interesting. I think I might also get that? It's hard to tell between the cramps and the vagaries of my digestion at any given moment--I can have stomach pains at p much any time unless I've been super careful w diet.

I just didn't know what it was because it didn't make sense for it to hurt on both sides.

Ovaries are like abdominal drudge sirens.

I get those ovary pains, which seems odd because I don't ovulate (thanking u, pill).

Although I've been on the same pill for aaaaaaages, my PMS has been worse in the past several months. I've always had breakouts (controlled by spironolactone, thankfully), a hunger that isn't so much hunger as a compulsive need to be eating something all of the time, and one day where I prefer to be close to a bathroom (progesterone-induced diarrhea), lately I've had feelings of anxiety/depression/general grumpiness. These feeling suck worse than the other symptoms. Advice?

menstrual cycles are fucking shit, man. if i believed in god i might actually agree with fundies who think he hates women.

i'm interested to see if the AD i'm now on has any effect on the anxiety/depression/general grumpiness that precedes my period, since thinking about, it definitely got worse when everything else got worse months ago.

i get the compulsive hunger, too, quincie - and it really is compulsive.

I started getting premenstrual depression/anxiety a few years ago and it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Part of me knew that it was hormonal and if I waited a couple of days, I'd be in the clear, but the fun part of depression/anxiety is that you can logically tell yourself whatever the hell you want and no matter how true it is, it won't mean shit.

yep

Ovaries are like abdominal drudge sirens.

Didn't want you to think I slept on this, I've had this image in my head all morning.

I used to know someone who had red and blue navigational stars tattooed under her hip bones, and now I can't stop seeing drudge sirens in the same place.

haha
your friend aimed a little low if she was aiming for ovary tattoos

I hear you, carl. I tell myself "OK don't freak out this is just hormonal thing and you will be fine in 2 days," but in truth I am thinking "holy shit I am losing it, will never feel OK again, wtf wtf wtf wtf is wrong with me HALP."