I’m huge, but I really have done well in keeping my weight on track. I’m almost to the 25 pounds minimum I was told to gain. We think it’s a girl based on the ultrasound; I wanted to know the baby’s gender because I prefer to plan. We’re going neutral with the colors and decorations but would be very surprised if the baby is a boy. My main concern is that the baby’s room is ready. I always assumed that we’d just take my vanity dresser out of the bedroom across the hall and convert my changing room into a nursery. Lou insists that the baby’s room be downstairs instead. He says it will give the child a greater sense of independence. I don’t agree and do not want that. I get that with monitors you can technically hear, but it is so far away from our room, I just don’t like it for many reasons. I know I’m going to be the one getting up in the middle of the night anyway. I didn’t win the debate, so now he is repairing walls and getting ready to paint the room near the bottom of the stairs. I just hope I don’t deliver early.
We have a lot of stuff from my baby shower. Dro and Sandy worked together to plan it, and my parents, sisters, and Mia came to surprise me. I acted surprised, anyway. Someone said something to me in a phone conversation about missing my party, and I mentioned the comment to Lou, not realizing that he may have known about the event. He was irritated that the individual was so careless, and then told me all the details, including when and where it was, and who my surprise out of town guests would be, and said I should just act as if I didn’t know. I wish he had acted like he didn’t know anything instead of spilling all the beans.
He claims he’s getting used to the idea of having a baby but is down and grumpy much of the time. I try to do what I can to help out and make it easier for him. I just never know what kind of mood he’s going to be in, so it’s hard to be excited about baby stuff in front of him when I don’t know how he’ll react when I talk about it.
We hired a Nanny / Office Assistant, which lasted just about one month. She was really young and too immature at 19 to handle the responsibilities. We’ve been compiling a mailing list to market a teamwork and production sequencing seminar on our own, so she was working on that with Lou. There’s no baby yet, so all of her time is with him in the office. Anyway, one day she told Lou she wasn’t feeling well, and wanted to go home. He said she should tough it out and stay. She went home anyway, and that was it for her employment. Toughing it out wasn’t so freaking tough anyway. I came home from work one day and found her laying out on the floor propped up with pillow reading off names and addresses to Lou while he typed them into the mailing list database. They were laughing and giggling the whole time, finding it particularly funny that she couldn’t pronounce Aurora, Illinois. Lou decided to name our baby Aurora. He was doing some repairs to the front steps to the house and had to put down new concrete. I came home to find he had engraved into the cement his initials, my initials, the nanny/secretary’s initials, and the name Aurora. I have to admit I was happy when she stormed out on him and quit when he didn’t let her go home because of cramps. And I was very happy when the water pipe cracked, and Lou had to rip up the concrete again and re-lay it with no initials. The Aurora name was never going to happen. We hired a new girl, who is very sweet, and a very hard worker. I think she will do great. We don’t pay that much, considering what we are asking them to do, but we are offering to help with college classes if she wants to go forward with her education. She wants to be a singer, so I don’t know how long she’ll actually stay with us.