Spills & Thrills

Well, as is customary, I'm here for your weekly update on how we're all doing and how, most importantly, the little sprout is doing. Surprisingly, despite the fact that most of our week was spent studying and doing taxes, I do have some "excitement" to discuss. Of course, if you know me, you know that I'm guilty of proclaiming that "excitement" is frequently overrated. This week's excitement falls into that category for the most part. Now that I've teased the excitement sufficiently, I think I'll go back to my typical chronological method of filling you in...it seems to work best for not forgetting (well, too much...I usually forget something).

So, we did have our appointment with the OB this week on Monday. I'm on for every other week visits again....which, as I remember, make the time go by much more quickly than when I'm only going every month. Nevertheless, we had a good visit...everything is going well save that slight swelling I'm having in my legs (taxes and baby growing...not a good match, I guess in this respect). The doctor gave me some tips on how to keep it from getting too serious which is, of course, my goal - I really want to avoid the whole "cankles" thing as long as possible!

I got some additional advice and had a lightbulb go on about this when I visited my favorite chiropractor for our scheduled visit. Okay, the advice didn't come from Mark, but he is my favorite chiropractor. We have to give credit to one of his advisors, though, who kindly relayed that blood typically goes down deep (i.e., inside the leg) and comes back up shallow and that the socks which were not a problem "back in the day" were causing some constriction and probably inhibiting the blood flow. Soooo, I'm glad it's spring since I've pulled out the sandals. The only part I'm not crazy about - I am having to wear them without nail polish. I can't really reach to paint the ol' toe nails and the verdict isn't in on whether putting a concoction of tons of not so good for you chemical components on your toesies can have an effect on your little baby so I'm abstaining. I figure I can handle 9 (yes, only 9!!) weeks of not having beach ready toes.

We also discussed maternity leave with the doctor which led to us having a decent discussion that night about our finances, whether or not we can make it if I stay home from work, etc., etc. The doctor suggested that I take off about a month before my due date but wasn't super firm about it. Since I am the "money source" in our little household, Mark and I have decided that I'll stick it out as long as I can...up to a week before my induce date or delivery date if we decide to let the sprout come out when he wants (we're still leaning toward his coming out sooner rather than later). And, we've decided that I'm just going to have to suck it up and go back to work in probably August so that we don't have to worry about how we're going to pay our bills and such. Luckily, it will only be for three days a week (maybe more since I've seen Mark's schedule and am going to see if they would be open to my coming in all five days but for only 4 or 5 hours each day). We're hoping to arrange the schedule such that our little bundle of joy will be watched by either mommy or daddy rather than a day care provider...partially because the day care thing will practically negate the positive cash flow we estimate my going back to work would provide. These things are always so tricky!

Aside from the OB update, a friend of mine sent us a nifty little site this week: http://howmanyofme.com/ where you can see how many people in the US share your name. Now, they don't go on symantics so I'm going to say there is only one of me (thanks to that capital L) though in total there are 14 Melissa Roccos....still pretty unique. There are also 28 Mark Roccos. The most interesting statistic for those trying to figure out what we've named the sprout, though, is that he is quite unique as well as there are only 8 other people in the US with his first and last name. What could they be? You're getting closer to finding out every day! :)

Other than that, the week was pretty quiet until today. We did do a little experiment allergy-wise with baked potatoes for dinner one night. Oh, they were sooo good may I say and it seems that my water helped keep them from causing too many issues. The tricky part is that potatoes never really caused a huge reaction as I remember so I'm still kind of wondering (especially since we had some again last night in celebration of St. Patty's Day and I forgot to ever take the water). I do have to admit that I've snuck a few little bits of things that have eggs and flour in them and they've done okay after a dose of voodoo water, though, so maybe we're onto something.

So, aside from that, we have today. Mark is still in the midst of his Part III Chiropractic Board Exams. They started WAY too early this morning at 6:45. Yikes! And, here's where the excitement comes in as well. I got up a bit before we needed to leave to take him over to the school and did some email checking while he wrapped up all he needed to do with himself to be presentable (which isn't much, I assure you...he's pretty low maintenance as most guys are). Once he was ready to go, I, in my most graceful (he he!) way got up out of my chair and headed toward my keys, purse, etc. Before I made it very far, though, something happened and I sort of tipped over, stumbled and ended up on the floor surrounded by several papers from the coffee table. I'm fine...I managed to land on my right hip and elbow so that's a little sore and a I have a few achy muscles here and there, but I don't have a scratch. Nevertheless, it was a bit of a surprise and a little scary after a bit. Luckily, I know that little sprout has one of the best shock-absorbing spaces one could wish for. So, there you go...there's our excitement for the week.

I did take a quick break to go get Mark from his test before finishing up that last paragraph. He thinks he did okay on it. I guess we'll find out in a month or so...stay posted and have a great week!