Why Yes, It IS Summer

People like to make conversation. Especially with pregnant women. This much I have learned.

But what people don't realize is that I have the SAME conversation about.... 4-5 times a day. It goes a little like something like this:

Coworker / Perfect Stranger: (With a big grin) Oooooh, you look so great! How far along are you?
Me: (With a practiced smile) About [fill in the blank] weeks.
CPS: So that would put your due date......
Me: (Wondering why that wasn't their first question) Around August 20.
CPS: Oh my goodness! So you have to go through the whole hot summer! It's going to be just awful. I mean, it's bad enough when you're not pregnant. But you, man, you are going to be MISERABLE. I had a baby/my daughter had her baby/my best friend's cousin had a baby right around this time last year, and she had the worst time. It was just so awful. I can't think of a worse time of year to be pregnant...(continues until I break in with the Pollyanna view)
Me: Well, it hasn't been too bad so far, and the good news is I'll have the baby right as it starts cooling down so we can go outside more.

It's as if people don't realize:
A. I know it's hot outside.
2. That they're focusing on the first negative they can think of, not on the fact that I'm actually having a baby
III. Being hot isn't the worst thing that can happen in pregnancy

I'm starting to give up on the Pollyanna view and just nod and smile, "Yep, it's hot." It's only a matter of time before I start telling them that I'm actually part chimera and the heat only fuels me. If only I didn't have to then explain what a chimera was.

- Jennifer

The Diabeetus is Winning

Disclaimer: I love this baby. I'm delighted about the pregnancy. I would happily sacrifice plenty more to ensure we have a happy, healthy boy at the end of all of it. But I also like to complain. Just so's you know. 


Every day, I'm confronted with temptations. This "gestational diabetes" thing is hard sometimes. Even when I call it "the diabeetus" to make myself laugh about it. I find myself going to find a snack and then remembering that every snack I'm used to eating is pretty much off limits. Yogurt? Nope. Too much sugar in normal yogurt. Granola bar? Carbs out the wazoo. Peanut butter and banana with honey? Again, the honey and banana means too much sugar.

So here, in no particular order, are 20 things I am looking forward to eating in about 9 weeks:

1. Ice Cream - I don't even care what flavor.
2. Pasta in a creamy sauce, like alfredo
3. Chocolate cake
4. Peanut butter and banana WITH honey, a piece of white bread and a glass of milk
5. Reese's Pieces
6. A sandwich. ANY sandwich.
7. Oatmeal loaded with fresh and dried fruit
8. A bowl of Dolce de Leche Cheerios
9. A beer
10. A glass of white wine (preferrably served on a patio somewhere)
11. French fries
12. Orange juice
13. Coffee loaded with cream and sugar
14. Fried chicken
15. A hot dog WITH a bun
16. A chocolate shake from Braum's
17. A large non-fat latte
18. A giant muffin with sugar crystals on top
19. Stir fry with white rice
20. Peach Cobbler

Only a few more weeks. I can do it....

-Jennifer

Here We Are and There You Go

Welcome to our new world.

In 2010, we decided it was time to try to add another Tatum to this world. After a year of trying and seeing doctors, we got the first, magical positive pregnancy test while on vacation at Walt Disney World. That was the first time this baby messed with our vacation, and I'm sure it won't be the last. I spent the rest of the vacation (mind you, we discovered the wonderful news on the second day of a 7-day trip) avoiding roller coasters, missing out on beer, getting exhausted and having wicked sciatic pain. Way to go, baby. I'm not bitter...

Fast forward a few months, and here we are. The nursery is mostly prepared. My belly is ever-expanding. Craft projects abound. Birthing classes have been taken. Clothes have been washed and put away. Dogs have had breakdowns during all the house changes. It's a wild world.

I am at 32 weeks as of today, and the baby is the size of a squash (15 inches, 3.5 pounds). That's pretty much what he's like, too - squashed. I feel his tiny limbs pushing at every side of my uterus throughout the day, trying to find a corner to stretch into. My belly rolls and undulates while I sit at my desk at work, and it's all I can do not to just stare at it for hours. It's fascinating. And creepy. But mostly fascinating.

This has been a fairly easy pregnancy (knock on wood - hell, knock the wood OVER), with few of the "magical" bits that my friends always warned me about. My feet are just starting to swell for the first time, but that's to be expected as the heat index jumps into the 100s this week. I have been cursed with the inconvenience of gestational diabetes, but of all the things that can go wrong, that one is at least controllable. Though it is somewhat cruel to tell a woman that although she's in the only stage of her life where she doesn't have to count calories, suddenly she's not allowed bread, sweets, milk, pasta, or basically anything that sounds delicious. Awesome.

There are about 8 weeks to go, and we've still got a few things to do. Like pack a bag for the hospital, and choose a pediatrician. But I have every confidence that we will have it all figured out in time. In the meantime, enjoy our foray into the truest adulthood there is - bringing another life into the world and believing that you will probably not screw everything up. Just some things.

~Jennifer