The last two days have been…different, to say the least!
Yesterday, we officially found out that our financing on the house fell through in the last stage of underwriting. In our price bracket (mid 200s) it’s hard to get approved, especially when my income is largely based on self employment– bad news if it looks like, on paper, that I left my entire clientele in Dallas! There are a couple other factors, but we’ve made the decision to stop hacking away at this for the immediate future and spend the next 6 months letting residency and other things settle in.
There are some huge blessings to this, and I’m so happy that they are easy to see (aka, I’m not having to force myself to “think on the bright side”). First of all, our moving timeline was starting to seriously stress me out. Moving into a house in May, after having had a baby 3 weeks prior? Crazy, mostly because there were a few significant changes (mostly painting) I wanted to make to the house before we moved in. Also, every weekend of May (other than one) is booked: the first weekend, we are chaperoning the high school’s Spring Formal at Pismo Beach, the second weekend is the school’s auction, at which Jesse is speaking and the fourth weekend is Anthony’s baptism (provided he’s OUT). Also, the first weekend of June is graduation, at which Jesse is, once again, speaking (notice a pattern?).
Secondly, the thought of 90% of our savings disappearing, right as I’m about to have a baby, is a bit alarming. In just the past 2 weeks, it was really starting to stress me out. What if (God forbid, obviously, but it’s unknown) Anthony has special needs and I’m unable to work? We shouldn’t have any medical bills to worry about, even if things do go awry, but my income is a HUGE part of this equation, and the boys will always come first. Having at least a few more weeks to “wait and see” will be nice. And, I’m not gonna lie, having all that money back in our savings account is a NICE feeling.
Lastly, Jesse can probably take the summer off, instead of working 20-30 hrs. a week doing random jobs for extra pay, like we were discussing. Home ownership takes a lot of extra funds– we were “prepared” on paper, but no one’s ever really prepared to all of a sudden buy $1,000 worth of extra necessities, such as a lawn mower, ceiling fans, even minor things such as shelves in the garage so that things don’t just lay around on the floor (one shelving unit is $70!). Again, they are all expenses we will gladly pay when the time is right, but I gotta admit, not having to worry about $ and instead having Jesse at home for the 3 months after having a baby? Not many people get that blessing.
So, we are going to take our down payment funds, lock them away somewhere, and start looking around for somewhere nice to rent for the next 6+ months. In the past, we’d toyed with the idea of renting a semi-furnished beach house in Morro Bay or Shell Beach, since we won’t have to go to work for the summer. And, come to find, Jesse and I are becoming beach people. Not in the “surfer” way, but in the “evening stroll at sunset” sort of way. And, yes, I’m completely aware that I just sounded like I am 26 going on 55.
It’s just a thought though. More than likely, we’ll rent somewhere close nearby 🙂
Anyways, that was yesterday. Since we needed a bit of a break and had cabin fever, we went to SLO for my chiropractor appt., went out to dinner, put G to bed, and then finally went on a much needed movie date 🙂
TODAY commenced a little earlier than I would’ve liked. You see, I woke up at 4am with contractions. Blah blah blah, nothing new, nothing new, that’s been going on for nearly 4 weeks now (I know, seriously, shoot me). But then these started getting harder, closer together, and kinda sorta miserable. Somewhere, I could hear that Celine Dion song, “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. I was like, “Yay! I’m in labor”, immediately followed by, “Oh CRAP I’M IN LABOR AND THIS REALLY HURTS.”
I dealt with things on my own until around 8am, when I heard G squawking away on the baby monitor. I woke Jesse up, told him the situation, and then spent a wonderful 1/2 hr. in the hottest shower I could stand. Really miserable 2 minute contractions continued, so Jesse made me a little makeshift bed on the living room couch. I watched the family slowly wake up– my mom making her coffee, Jesse cooking steel cut oats for G, Janelle and her teenage ninja turtle friends stumble out from their sleepover in the family room…at one point, G saw that I was in pain and came over to give me “snuggles and lovies”. He is the sweetest boy, I tell you!
And then? At 10am, I fell asleep. At 10:30, I woke up, no contractions. 11am, no contractions.
I had texted my doula at around 9am, mainly because we had a prenatal massage appt. scheduled for today, but also because I wanted to give her the heads up. She made the choice to drive up and see how I was doing, and she arrived a little after 11. We talked and relaxed for about 45 minutes, and then we decided to take a walk. The walking started contractions again, but still 10-12 minutes apart. Discouraging, but also mildly better than when this happened with G. At least they were semi-predictable, instead of all over the map– with G, it was every 27 minutes, then every 5, then every 12, then every 45…craziness.
So, Kelly’s advice was to do 4 things for the remainder of the day– sleep, eat, walk, sleep. She went to hang out at a family friend’s house a few minutes away, just to make sure I didn’t feel “pressured” to have more contractions (bless her, this is actually exactly what I needed! Even though I couldn’t do anything about it, I felt guilty). Just a few minutes ago, she told me she was going to go home but would be right next to her phone. I’ve had contractions start again every time I get up and walk, but they stop when I relax.
So….that’s all I’ve been doing all day! Eating yummy foods (my mom made cinnamon rolls, Jesse made me mac n cheese!), sleeping as much as possible, walking in the beautiful neighborhood clothed in spring (my fav season, definitely). Now that G’s asleep, Jesse and I have plans to go out to eat at our favorite Mexican food place, then maybe walk around Target, who knows?
Long and short, I guess Anthony is waiting for now. Le sigh.
But for now, I get to enjoy the 70 degree sunshine!
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