What's in a name?

EVERYTHING!

We thought we had the perfect name picked out for the baby. But now we are wavering. We are sticking with the middle name that we had but rethinking the first name. Turns out that while both Joe and I like the name we each thought that the other one loved it when in fact neither of us love it we both just like it (got that?). So... we are back to the drawing board. We are sort at a holding point right now on the choice. We have a few we like but are totally open to new options. Suggestions are welcome!

Summer's Here!

Finally, we have something resembling summer weather. Yes, it is September. But the last few days have been hot. Today is cooler but still very warm and dry. Looking at the weather forecast it is supposed to remain this way through the weekend.

Thursday night we are going to our local melodrama “Shanghaied” which should be a lot of fun. We have never gone before even though it has been playing for something like 20 years. With Bear visiting it seemed like a good time to go. Especially since she is a theatre major and very much enjoys plays and such.

The realtor is coming back tomorrow night to do some additional listing pictures. I have been looking at lots of decorating web sites and blogs and have some ideas for staging. This part seems like it should be fun but it scares me a bit. I'm not good at decorating. Things never seem to look right when I put them together. I love cottage style looks but can't figure out how to translate those into real life. That will be my task for tonight. Attempt to make my house look like a "Model Home". Model homes sport dog hair, right?

An Exciting Day!

Our house goes on the market today. I would say it is about 95% ready to show. Tonight we will finish up a couple of things. I truly wonder how I will keep it looking good all the time. And of course, the dog has decided now would be a very good time to shed. Aren't they supposed to do that in the spring time? Shouldn't he be getting some heavy winter coat now instead of losing it? sigh.

We got some other great news a few days ago. We had been looking at a piece of land in Wyoming. We made an offer on it at the end of July which was rejected. We made a second offer last week and it was accepted! We are scheduled to close on it before the end of this month. Super fast deal. It is 2 acres with a well and a septic in place and power/phone to the lot line. Our plan is to either build or move on a modular. The catch. We will have to move to Wyoming before the house is completed. We will be 'roughing it' in our camp trailer. Should make for a fun time. The plan is not to move until spring so at least we won't have any weather issues to worry about. I have been studying lots of "Off Grid Living" type blogs for ideas on how to be more comfortable during the camp trailer time. I am amazed at how ingenious people can be. They have given me some very good ideas.

Our new property has an amazing view which makes it a little easier to give up the amazing view I have now. The picture above is the view. See that mountain? That is Casper Mountain. I thought we would only have prairie there so I was quite happy to find a piece of property that looked at a mountain. Okay, so it isn't as big as the mountains I'm used to. But it'll do! Lots of fun things to do on that mountain too. A nice little ski area, cross country ski trails, hiking, fishing, camping. All good things. A few miles from our new property is a river and a park with a boat launch. We are pretty sure hubby's boat is too big for that little river but a smaller boat would work. The same river has some great man made rapids for kayak's and tubes in the town of Casper plus we are told the fishing in the river is very good. And less than an hour east is a nice big lake perfect for more fishing or for water skiing. My goal once we get relocated is to convince Joe that he would much rather have a water skiing boat and a small fishing than a big fishing boat. Wish me luck on that one (here is where I need a winking smilie). But in my mind it is a good deal. Two boats in place of one! What's not to like about that idea?

Nothing Much

My computer is still at the shop. I am on Bear's laptop. I don't know why it is so hard for me to work this mouse like item on this laptop but it sure is. I cause myself great frustration trying to navigate. I planned on getting me a laptop when we move but now I'm rethinking that idea. Bear tells me I can hook a regular mouse to it though so with that option maybe I'll be okay.

Here we are working on the house again. It goes on the market tomorrow. As I sit here typing the place is in a shambles. Hopefully we can get everything done today that needs to be done. It is all little stuff but those little things sure add up. I'm sure Bear was quite happy to come for a visit and discover how much there is to do here. She actually did seem happy when Joe told her that he would pay her to paint the kitchen! She'll finish it today. It looks wonderful. I do not enjoy painting but I have to do quite a bit of it myself today. ICK. I had best get to it.

Titles

I don't usually get to hung up on titles. But in the surrogacy world titles are very common. Panties get in big wads due to titles.



I know that it is very common for a surrogate to be given the title of "Auntie" after the baby is born. For me though I have never been comfortable with the idea of J being called "Auntie J". It just sits wrong with me. In the first place she will not be the babes aunt. She is the biological mother. Not an aunt. As part of our 100% disclosure policy I don't feel that it is honest to call her Aunt J. I know that there are plenty of people that call family friends Aunt or Uncle so maybe thinking of it that way I could see calling her Aunt. Or if she was a gestational surrogate then maybe. But it is so important to us not to 'muddy the waters'. We have so many people involved in this, the baby, J's child, my children it seems to me that the clearer things are kept the better.



So that has been my thinking on it. However, to tell you the truth I have put off having the 'title conversation' with J. If she told me she wanted to be known as Auntie J then that is what we would do. I finally decided a few days ago that it was time for that chat. Turns out she is not too keen on being called Aunt J either. So what do we call her?



The reality is that because of our wanting to be honest she should probably be given a title of Mommy J or something like that. BUT I CAN'T. I just can't do that. I want to be the mommy. I want to be the only mommy. J knows this and agrees. So our plan is to just call her by her first name. In some ways I feel a little bad about that. I feel like I need to take this honesty thing all the way. That I should be the one called by my first name and J should be called mommy. But then I think that could make even more of a mess of things. I will be the one caring for him day in and day out. I will be the one there to kiss his owies, to take him to his first day of school, to give him the sex talk, it's all on me (with Joe's help, of course).



So I guess our 100% disclosure policy has a small flaw in it. Will our baby get confused by calling J's child his sister but that J isn't called his mom? I admit that I get confused thinking of all this a little bit. We have time though to work it all out. Considering that he isn't even born yet. This is unknown territory for us. I'm not sure that we can do everything exactly right. We can just do the best we can day in and day out.

First Day of School

KiKi and LuLu have finally returned to school. The first day of school is always so exciting. But as LuLu put it in a week she will be ready for winter break. Such a realist! They are so old. KiKi is in 8th grade and LuLu is in 6th. They looked so beautiful and grown up this morning. Where did my little girls go? The young ladies that left my house this morning were barely recognizable. Sigh.

Bear (my oldest) is here and we are enjoying our visit. She is even doing some contract work here at my place of employment so I get her full time with me. Yeah!!

21 weeks!

We are now 21 weeks 2 days. Time is flying by. I am sad that we won't be able to go down for the next OB appointment. Joe needs to have a root canal and has to take some time off for that instead of our baby appointment. Don't Joe's teeth know better than to give him trouble now? I could go down by myself but the idea of a 12+ hour drive on my own is not appealing. I'm still considering it but not sure I'll do it.

Now that we are more than half way we have started thinking about things like when to go down and wait for the baby to come. Baby is due January 10th so right now we are thinking of going down around New Years. Of course, we will change that plan if the doctor says come earlier. We are a little concerned about Joe's work giving him time off. He works for a small company and they do not have to follow the FMLA law (too few employees). So far they have been wonderful about giving a day off here and there when we need it but a few of weeks off may be an issue. There is the possibility that Joe will not be able to stay down with me while we wait for the baby. There is a chance that he will miss the birth. We know that and we don't like it but in the end it will be okay. My work is okay with me going especially since I am hiring a part timer to cover the phones for me and I can do all the computer stuff remotely.

I'm now on count down to pumping. As I have mentioned I am inducing lactation. I have been taking the medication (Domperidone) since June. And my intent is to begin pumping on October 10th. I'll also add a couple of herbs then (fenugreek and blessed thistle) and increase my oatmeal consumption. With the domp, the pumping, the herbs and the oatmeal my hope is that I'll be able to provide most of the milk that the baby will need. I breastfed successfully before so the rumor is that it may be easier for me to induce lactation then if I hadn't. I'm still going to order a Supplemental Nursing System or a Lactaid. Worse case scenario, Inducing Lactation is a bust and we switch over to bottles and formula.

We have been getting our baby gear together. We still need a car seat and more cloth diapers. I have been buying up baby clothes like there is no tomorrow. According to Joe our baby can wear a different outfit every day and instead of washing I can just throw them away. haha. Joe's a funny guy. And Cyn if you are reading we got one of those baby bouncer things you recommended. Thanks for that.