A Surgeon's Life? Not for Us...No Thank You.

Evan has really had a rough past few weeks.  His schedule is daunting and exhausting.  I don't know how he does it.  Last week, he woke up at 4:45 every morning from Monday - Friday.  He, naturally, gets to sleep in on Saturday right?  WRONG.  On Saturday, he was already at the hospital at 5:30 that morning and did not come home until 11 on Sunday morning.  He was beyond tired.  I felt so bad for him.  He told me to wake him up at 2.  I woke him up at 3.  We laid in bed until around 3:30.  And before we knew it, his "weekend" was over when he went to bed at 9:30 last night.  He was at the hospital around 6:30 this morning.  He's already on call again tomorrow, which means he'll get in at 6:30 and won't come home until Wednesday.  I feel so bad for him.  What makes matters even worse is that my schedule isn't 'spend time with him' friendly.  He'll probably wake up around 2:30 on Wednesday, but I probably won't come home until 6 because I'll be working at the law office. 

Evan had a semi mid-life career crisis a few weeks ago when he started surgery and realized he didn't like it.  Surgery was originally going to be his back-up for Urology.  I have to admit that when he said he didn't like surgery, I was rather disappointed.  I thought he would be great as a general surgeon.  Plus, it's kinda hot: "yeah, my husband's a surgeon!"  Actually, it was more than that.  I find it VERY attractive that my significant other has such high career goals for himself.  I find it VERY attractive that my significant other is so intelligent.  My Dad always says you should be with somebody that you respect and for me, intelligence is a big factor in respect.  Evan's a trillion times smarter than I am.  He doesn't think so, but that's why we work!  He says that my ability to focus and do so well with my career has always been very appealing to him.  Sure, I could have said "I'm marrying a doctor, I don't care what I do with my life because he'll support me."  But honestly, that was NEVER an option for me.  At the end of the day, I wanted to be proud of myself, and most importantly, I wanted my husband to be proud of who I was.

After these first four weeks of surgery, I am incredibly glad Evan didn't like surgery.  I'm entirely convinced that if somebody decides to become a surgeon, they must not like their spouse that much!!  What you'd basically be saying is, my career is #1 to me.  Not my family.  While Evan and I are both very career oriented, we come first in each others lives.  That's the way it should be.  That's the way it has to be.

If Evan does get in to Urology here in Lubbock, he will have to do general surgery for a year (it's his first year of residency).  That year will suck.  It'll be just like these past 4 weeks, but worse, because he'll actually be DOING the surgeries.  But, it'll only be the first year.  After that, he'll do Urology.  His hours will get somewhat better and he gets to take call from home!  That sounds MUCH better.  If Evan doesn't get Urology, he has decided to do OB/Gyn (he wants to do a Uro-Gyn fellowship afterwards).  Again, those hours aren't great, but they have a better schedule set up for their residents and the hours aren't quite the same.  When he was on OB, he occasionally got to sleep when he slept over night.  Also, he wasn't GO GO GO the entire time. 

He only has 3 weeks left, which means I only have 3 weeks left...then I get my husband back!  We haven't woken up together in so long.  This Saturday, we'll finally get a morning to wake up together.  Our Saturday ritual is waking up whenever we feel like it, and then turning on some stupid TV show for 30 minutes while we cuddle and occasionally fall back asleep.  It's amazing.  We can't wait...HGTV, here we come.

28 Week Survey

How far along? 28 weeks, 5 days

                                                   
Maternity clothes? The only non-maternity stuff I wear these days are Evan's t-shirts to sleep and pajama pants that I think I'll be able to wear until I deliver.  The pants with elastic are feeling snug sometimes, but the ones with only a drawstring can get huge, so they're nice and comfy.

Stretch marks? Still none!  Woo hoo!  I weighed myself yesterday and my weight gain finally started getting normal.  I haven't gained 20 pounds yet, but I think that will happen pretty soon.

Sleep:  My sleep varies every evening, but in general, I did pretty well this week.  My back hurts a couple times a week, especially around 4 in the morning.  Also, I never sleep very deeply because the baby moves so much.  BUT, those movements are so welcome.  I don't think I'll ever get tired of feeling our daughter move. 

Best moment this week:  I worked A LOT this week.  I was at the office all the time and it felt so good to work and feel really productive without constantly thinking about the pregnancy.  I'm really big on still being me through the pregnancy and after the baby comes along, so it was nice feeling proud of my work at the end of the day.

Movement: OH YES!  When we were at the doctor's this week, she said I was measuring small (this doesn't mean my belly is small, this means the uterus wasn't measuring as high).  This happens sometimes when the abdominal muscles of the Mommy were pretty fit before pregnancy, and I was actually in really good shape before I got pregnant, so this didn't surprise me too much.  Anyway, she wanted to do a fetal monitor test to make sure everything was fine and they were quickly convinced that I didn't have ANYTHING to worry about.  When they were putting the little monitor on my belly, we couldn't keep it still because Liliana was moving so much that it kept moving around.  They thought it was hilarious.  She's already so unique.  This is what these nurses and doctors do all day and they still thought she was so surprisingly active! : )

Food cravings: None this week.  Not even my candies! : ) 

Gender: Guess what?  I had a dream on Friday night that she came out as a he!!  WOAH!! That would be crazy!  "Umm...Mom...can you go home and change the ENTIRE nursery?" haha.

Labor Signs: Still having some Braxton Hicks, but didn't have too many this week.

Belly Button in or out? Yeah, it's pretty out.  I even had some random person at the law school tell me "that turkey timer is almost ready!"

What I miss: You know, I've never complained about missing alcohol.  I rarely drank before pregnancy anyway.  BUT...this week, as I said above, I worked a lot and had a rather rough week.  I'm really trying to impress them at the office while still sending applications to other firms, doing my school work, dealing with pregnancy, being a student (which is already a full time job in and of itself), etc.  ANYWAY, long story short, I was really stressed to say the least.  Anyway, one really busy afternoon at work when I had gotten three new projects and was thinking I would have to stay until 10 just to finish them, I sent Evan a text saying "if we weren't pregnant, you would have taken me out for a delicious margarita tonight."  So, this week, that's what I missed...margaritas that make all my stress and aches go away! : )

What I am looking forward to: We have our third trimester ultrasound on Tuesday!  Even though the fetal monitor test went really well, the doctor decided to still do the ultrasound to make sure my amniotic fluid is looking ok.  SO, we originally thought we'd see Liliana again at 34 weeks, but we're gonna see her at 29 weeks!  I CAN'T WAIT.  Plus, Evan most likely will be able to come with me to the ultrasound which is really exciting (he couldn't come to the last visit and I missed him so much).

Weekly Wisdom: Try and schedule some time for just you and your spouse in the second trimester.  I wish Evan and I had done this more.  We tried our best, but now that I'm in my third trimester, finals and projects are around the corner, and we have to keep going with the nursery, I realize there will not be that same amount of time.  Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for Liliana's arrival.  She is going to be the sunshine in our life, that is for sure.  BUT, I am starting to get a little emotional because life as I've known it with our two pups and us two is done.  That's going to be a hell of an adjustment!

Milestones: The job search is REALLY on.  Hopefully in the next month, I'll finally have some word as to what the plans are.  We'll seeee.....

Our Baby Shower

Last Saturday, we had our big baby shower.  We have another shower in Lubbock that will be on April 17th, but this shower was our big one...lots of people...you know, the only way Puerto Rican women know how to do it!

My godmother threw my wedding shower as well.  She is the queen of amazing showers.  For my bridal shower, she took all her furniture out of her home, set up her entire house in Bright Green and Dark Purple (my wedding colors) and it was just incredible.  Of course, she went all out again for the baby shower.  I don't know how my godmother does it.  She had knee surgery three weeks before the shower and was going through so much personal stuff that week (the whole family got deposed for a lawsuit my godbrother is involved in when their baby boy was born stillborn abotu 3 years ago).  She is so special to me and I appreciate her so much.

We wanted to do a couples shower and suddenly realized there were too many people that we were inviting!  I told her I thought it would be 60 pepole if we did couples...I would have been WAY wrong.  About 45 - 55 women were there (I didn't count everyone).  Multiply that by two and WOW, everybody in San Antonio would have been at our shower.

Liliana's nursery is green and a dark bright pink (raspberry) and she had those colors around the house (huge bunches of balloons, etc) with quite a few Aggie things throughout of course.  The gifts were DAUNTING.  I opened gifts for 1.5 hours STRAIGHT.  I didn't get time to stop and say "oh my gosh! how adorable!"  I was going as fast as possible and I have to admit, I was exhausted by the end of it all.

We loaded everything in to my Mom's mini-van and Evan's 4Runner after the shower (yes, two cars).  When we got home, we stayed up until midnight sorting everything...what we had doubles, what we could leave in S.A. until my Mom came to Lubbock later, etc.  The next morning, my Mom and I went and returned all the doubles because if not, we couldn't have fit everything in the car.  While we were returning everything, my Dad, my brother (who surprised us and drove ALL THE WAY from Shreveport with Annie and Sofia), and Evan strategically packed the 4Runner and fit everything we wanted to bring!

Evan and I drove home ANXIOUSLY awaiting our arrival to Lubbock.  We were SO excited to start setting that nursery up and I went strong for over 3 hours helping Evan unpack, organize, etc.  By about 9 p.m. I was exhauasted, so we stopped for the night.

I'd say her nursery is now 75% complete.  We still have to put the prints on teh wall and make a few more aesthetic changes, but for now, it's ready!!  Here are some pictures to keep you up to date.  If you have some suggestions, let me know.   I must admit though, I think it looks AWESOME.  She's over 2/3 done in the womb and we're 75% done with the nursery, so we're ahead of the game! ; ) 

This side of the room looks the most similar to what it looked before, but we did add the mobile, the cradle swing, and of course, in Lubbock the ESSENTIAL humidifier.  ALSO, you can see that I've started painting the toy chest.  I'm not done with it yet.  I still have to add the letters spelling her name and will probably go buy those this weekend.  Who knows when I'll have time to paint them.  I have been SO FREAKING busy this week...that's a whole other post.  For now, keep looking at her calming nursery (hmm....did we make it calming to help Mommy out perhaps? haha)

This side has quite a few changes!  We added the boppy, the changing pad, the basket etc.  The toy chest, for now, is full of wipes and diapers.  I LOVE that bcthe room smells like babies now...  : ) 

Look at our closet!!!  This is my FAVORITE change of all and took quite a few hours.  The side of clothes that you see on hangers is all her nice outfits from 0 - 3 months (yeah, she's covered).  The boxes are full of shoes, clothes for 3 - 9 months, and little bows for her little head. ; ) 

One more view...sorry...I think I just wanted to see it again.  hee hee.

Can't wait to post it when we're officially done!

BTW: not everything is in the nursery obviously.  We have 3 car seats in the guest room, and our kitchen already had an overhaul because she already has her own section.  Plus, we have the high chair and bumbo in there too.  Oh yeah, and the guest bath has her bathtub, toy carrier, and a bunch of other stuff.  NO...she's not already spoiled by my amazing family...

Our house is looking like the baby will be here soon (again, not until June 15th Ms. Liliana Rose Lacefield!!!  Don't you dare!!! haha)  We're really glad with how it's coming along and sit in her nursery every evening before going to bed.  We can't wait for her arrival, but for the next 3 months, we're going to try and treasure these last few as just us two...those 7 1/2 years of just us two have been amazing, I want to cherish what we have left.