I.am.officially.overwhelmed.

It is true!

I have always managed work and home with no issues. My energy levels were always good. Well, that was all in the past.

Now I have all kinds of aches and pains, my to-do list is never ending. I finish one task only to have 3 to take its place. If you want to tell me to take it easy, try telling that to my nesting pg hormones. It is totally on overdrive. It is apparently absolutely vital that the bedding and wall colors in baby's room match to a pixel becasue as we all know BABY WILL CARE TREMENDOUSLY if I mix up Ramie or Sapling. Baby will also care if all the cabinets in the kitchen and the closets and cupboards are not emptied out and rearranged and organized.

The timer is my new best friend. I work for 15 minutes and then rest for half an hour. That way, it took me all Saturday to organize the broom closet. The broom closet has been the bane of my existence for a long time. It was absolutely overflowing and things were jumping out if we tried to get anything from there. It has been on my to do list for the last 1.5 years. I purged, rearranged, organized, bagged for goodwill and it was a long process. But man, I am pleased with the result.

Here is a before picture.



And the after one!



Did you see the cute baskets? I love them. I got it at Ross for $1.99 a piece. I am in love with Ross. I will write about that love affair in detail later.

List-PG style

The closer I get to the due date, the more terrified I am. And that is the truth. Sometimes I think I want to try it without epidural, but then I think - Who am I kidding? I pass out during blood work.

Yesterday I was browsing a baby website and for fun took a test. I scored 1/10. I have never scored that low in any test in my life. As you can imagine, it did wonders to my confidence. Hubby scored a whopping 3/10. The good news is between the two of us, we made a passing grade. Maybe that is the reason why I dreamt yesterday that I failed History in school. The better news is we BOTH know that we should not give baby a bubble bath until 3 years old.

I had given hubby "The Expectant Father" for his birthday (in my defense he had requested for a "father book") to read so that he can get an idea of what is going on. He started reading and felt sorry for what I was going through. Thus, he never woke me up Monday morning and I slept till 9. I was supposed to be at work at 9. And today morning as I was waking up and still in bed, he was describing episiotomy to me. He can't help but share his new found wisdom with me. I am wondering now if it was a mistake giving him the book.

We briefly thought about cloth diapering the baby. And by briefly, I mean about 15 seconds. My philosophy for dealing with poop is that I would like to minimize contact to the maximum extent possible. I know that I have to deal with it of course, but I am thinking cloth diapers will require more of a "hands on" experience than disposable.

We never had a Costco account and never really saw the need for one. For the two of us, it was just too much. But our car needed the tires changed and they had the best deal even if you included the membership fees. So it made sense. Then we read somewhere that a baby goes through 10 diaper changes a day. That clinched the deal.

We attend a childbirth class every Thursday and hubby and I ask the most number of questions and we take notes. I think we are certified geeks. In our defense, we have no friends or family close by, so we try and get as much information and help as we can from other sources. We had only one class so far and the instructor asked how many were planning to try natural childbirth. There was not a single person. I felt bad for our Lamaze instructor.

You have heard of people asking permission for working from home. I am thinking of asking my boss if I can work from the bathroom. I pee 14 or 15 times in a given 24 hour period. So, it makes sense to take my laptop and work from there. I think my baby has found a comfortable perch on top of my liver or bladder.

A photo from a week before.



PS: It is dangerous to read some of the points in this post without a sense of humor.

Weekend Festivities

It was a very good weekend. It was hubby's birthday on Saturday and for his present, I sent him to get his cholesterol checked. That is what virtuous wives do for their husband's birthday. It says so in Proverbs 31.

After he came back from his check where they found that he had low HDL and slightly high triglyceride. Now I am scouring the net on how to raise the HDL levels for a vegetarian. His liver is producing the cholesterol, so there is not a whole lot we can do to reduce it by means of diet and exercise.

My plans for his birthday lunch was something like this. I am very glad though that I did not attempt it as hubby would have found lunch with a dead wife for the first course. No kidding, that meal took the two of us together 5 hours to prepare. So, I made him Pulav and Malai Kofta. Malai Kofta is the vegetarian version of meat balls in sauce. I followed this recipe. I should get an award for tolerating the annoying narration about 10 times. (yummy yummy sauce - eye rolling -) I make Pulav occasionally, so that was no big deal, but Malai Kofta took me 3 hours to cook.



You know what you probably shouldn't do when you are 7 months pregnant? 4 hours of straight cooking in front of a hot stove in summer when the temperature is a warm 95.

Just a piece of advice there.



And in the evening I made Palappam and veg stew.

And later in the night we went to the hospital to get our stomachs pumped out.

I totally made the last part up. But I think we were in danger of that. We ate that much.

I got a prenatal massage in the evening and since it was his birthday and all, I got him one as well. A regular massage, not a prenatal one.

Just making things clear here.

I also got him two of his favorite classical music cds, a book, couple shirts and a pair of shoes. It was great to see him relax and take a break from work. He lay on the sofa reading and I just cuddled up and went to sleep on his lap. It started out great.

Can I give another piece of advice?

When you are seven months pregnant and huge, don't think you can curl up and cuddle in small and soft spaces like you used to and not get a body ache when you get up.

You are welcome.

Here is the disaster zone my kitchen after all the cooking.





Don't forget to notice the orange overload.

The Birthday Boy - Updated

1. He makes sure I get enough protein every day by leaving loving notes around the house



2. He lets me put my cold feet on his warm ones during the winter when we sleep
3. He has his special way of letting me know when he is hungry: (If I don't get dinner in 10 minutes, you will be dinner)
4. He fights me for the leftover rice (if there is new and leftover) so I don't have to eat the leftovers.
5. He eats 7 oranges in one sitting after he has had a workout. We have a second income so we could support his orange addiction.
6. He loves Table Tennis and joined a group. He beat all the players every week and they got frustrated and closed the group.

He is turning another year today.

Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Handbag Miracle

I am slightly obsessed about certain purchases. And not always for big ticket items either. In early 2006, my husband's professor whom he is very close to sent R and I some wedding gifts. There were 2 handbags and a Chanel perfume set for me and 2 shirts for him. Since then, I have been using one of those bags on Sundays for church and the other one for the office and everywhere else. It is not a great bag as there is only one pocket and I stuff EVERYTHING in there and can never find ANYTHING.

I have a half an hour bag cleaning session every month where I complain and mutter to myself while emptying junk out. Hubby thinks that is great entertainment. When I went to India in 2008, my dad remarked that it is probably time to get a new bag. Now, to appreciate that comment, you have to know that my Dad is possibly the most low-needs person in the world. When he says that to me, I will have to leave to your imagination what my bag was like. That was a year and a half ago. Now, with more wear and tear, I can tell you, it ain't pretty.

So for the past 6 months, buying a bag has been on my mind. But I have thought so much about it that I am slightly obsessed about my "bag needs." Nothing satisfies me. I want a bag with at least 3 main pockets, 2 zippered ones and a middle one with a magnetic button, it should have a strap the length of which is just-so, not too long, not too short, preferably not leather (are there any other options even?). It would be great if there is an outside pocket for cellphone. Not a bag which is too big or too small.

I make it sound like I have been actively looking for one, but I haven't. I just look at bags every time I go to a store which sells bags - which I have to admit is not very often. When I did that last time, hubby asked, "You STILL haven't gotten a new bag?" I hang my head in shame. I have no girlfriends to go shopping with, going by myself is boring, and going with my hubby shopping is about as exciting as going to the dentist for a tooth extraction.

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I had written the above a while back and here is the update!

Anyway, it so happened that we were in a mall area for something else last Saturday and I decided I will look around for a bag this time. Hubby sat in the car and I settled on a bag, settled being the key word. I was all for having an outside pocket for eay access to cell phone and keys, but this was huge. It could fit my cell phone, keys and my baby too. I was unable to find anything else to my liking and I was walking to the counter to pay for it when I thought I should have hubby take a look. He took one look at my selection and said he hated it. And then proceeded to pick this or me - in 30 seconds flat.



It is PERFECT for me. It met all my conditions and more. It has two cute small side pockets which fits my PDA and keys. It is really small so I was thinking it would be a waste of space, but even my fat phone fits perfectly in there!

And it was on 50% off sale. What more could a girl want?

It is a handbag miracle!

Then there were three

This post is actually long overdue.

I have thought of a thousand cute ways to say this. My friends in real life know already. Some of you have figured out from various subtle hints over time in this blog. For various reasons, I kept postponing saying this.

In addition to my parents, we are joyfully anticipating an addition to our family end of August. Unlike my parents who are thinking of staying 4 months at the most, this one is here for the long haul.

After three years of prayers and tears and heartbreak, we are counting down two digit days for the arrival of our baby.

This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.

It has been indeed the Lord's doing and I am thankful everyday for the answered prayer. For privacy reasons, I don't feel quite comfortable sharing all aspects of our journey. But I can say this. The Lord has been good to us. He has been faithful when I have been faithless.

This verse has comforted and ministered during the difficult times and is going in the baby's room in some form or other.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory

To him alone be the glory. Amen

Officially entering my third trimester today.