crazy pregnant talk

It’s been a crazy Friday/ weekend. It’s been fun though.
Friday morning I had a dream. Some friends of mine from college were going to France, but we couldn’t go until I got my suitcase packed just right. I think I packed my suitcase 3 or 4 times, and woke up just as I was repacking it, again, into a different suitcase. As I woke up, a flash of inspiration hit me. 1) My friends were all waiting on me, but they were waiting for my pregnancy to be over. This has very little basis in fact, since I am not in touch on a regular basis with my friends. 2) The baby is a girl. 3) We need to give her the “French” name we had been contemplating. I had my gender check on Friday, and when I went to bed the night before, I had been wondering how we were ever going to decide which name to give her, if it was a girl. We have two that we like. I thought well I guess we can just wait until we meet her and then decide. But this decided it. So yes, we are having a girl. The gender check confirmed it. I really had no cluse one way or the other, but apparently most people I know thought it would be a girl. Alann usually likes to take bets on things if we are waiting somewhere. He’ll say “so who do you think will get called into the office first?” Stuff like that. But he didn’t want to play while we waited for the ultrasound. But Claire is definitely going to be daddy’s little princess. I’m not at all worried about that.
Apparently I need to stay away from Wal-mart for the duration of my pregnancy. It has a tendency to bring me to tears. Here is what happened. Friday I went grocery shopping. I needed some more Infusium leave in treatment because it is the ONLY thing that will keep my hair from becoming a scary, frizzy, staticy, mess. It doesn’t matter which shampoo I use. I have tried just about every brand, including Infusium’s. It’s only the leave-in treatment that works. So anyway, I looked at our regular grocery store and couldn’t find it. This didn’t worry me too much, as our grocery store really SUCKS in the non-food departments. So Saturday morning I returned a few things to Target and cruised the maternity section for some jeans that might actually fit. My $6 DI jeans don’t fit quite right. They tend to fall down actually. It’s annoying. Then I remembered that I needed Infusium desperately. So I checked out the hair care section. Nothing. Now I start to get worried. So I bought what I picked up (no clothes, just hangers) and headed to Wal-Mart, since they live next door. As I am standing in the shampoo aisle of Wal-mart, where I have bought it before, I can’t find it. I really start to panic. Then tears start forming. What will I do if they went out of business? Then I get a grip and calm myself down, thinking about how silly I look, standing in a shampoo aisle crying. So I look once more and FINALLY find it. They changed their packaging on me. I can’t say I am surprised. I buy Infusium about once a year. (Frugal tip- put it in a pump-top spray bottle and spray it on instead of using the bottle it comes in. It lasts much much longer this way, and I feel it covers more evenly.) So I went about my business, bought my infusium and a cute new purse and left.
The rest of my Saturday was busy. As I was leaving Wal-mart, I passed Kohl’s. I think, well I am already out, I might as well stop. So I found three pairs of pants there- one pair of maternity jeans (on sale), one pair of silver/black maternity jeans on clearance, and one pair of khaki-slack capris, on clearance. I wasn’t sure if I would like these capris, but I really do. And they don’t look like maternity pants, so I can totally wear them regularly too.
Saturday evening we also went out to eat at the Melting Pot. I love that restaurant. It’s one of my favs. (Here's a tip, to save money and calories- you can order a half or one-person portion of any of their "couple" meals. That's what we do. Then we can enjoy the food, becoming pleasantly satisfied, instead of being rolled out the door.) Then we went to an art exhibit at the University. It was called Monet to Picasso and was about Impressionism, which I like. But the exhibit was rather small and there weren’t very many well-known pieces. Oh well, at least it was free. (Someone sent my boss tickets in the mail and she didn’t want them, so I snagged them.) All in all, it was a fun night. Except for the pee-smelling lady on Trax. And then the group of pre-adolescent boys going home from the Dew Tour who insisted on running up and down the aisle of the train, jumping off and switching cars every stop, and just being downright annoying.

Then I went to Walmart for work on Monday. I almost had another breakdown as I looked for a product that I couldn’t find, that I know I bought there before. Sigh. Stupid Wal-Mart. Always making me cry. I can’t say it surprises me, since Wal-Mart isn’t exactly soothing to the nerves on a normal day, what with the screaming children, people yelling at each other from opposite sides of the store, and general crowded and dirty nature of the store. But since they have the best prices on processed foods, which is what I buy there for work, I deal with it.
Right now we are trying to decide what car seat to buy. I know, it seems early. But I would rather buy one and have it installed correctly and be able to take it to a car seat checkpoint now, instead of waiting until I am pretty much useless in a few months. Plus it is taking a lot of my brain power to figure this out, so I am hoping that once I pick one, I can move on to cribs and other fun stuff. Steph- go to www.carseatdata.org. You can search your car and see what the “car seat techs” say will fit well. This didn’t really help me because they don’t have infant-only seats listed for my car. But now I have a few brands that I am considering. I am trying to decide between the Graco SnugRide, which gets decent Consumer Reports grades, but isn’t listed as fitting in my car, or the Britax Companion, which is now on the Consumer Reports (they have a new rating up!) but Britax is listed as fitting in my car, or the Baby trend Flex Loc, listed on CR and says it fits. I don’t know what to do. They all have similar ratings on CR, with the Britax first, then Baby Trend, then Graco. But the Britax is 2 points higher than the Baby Trend, and 3 higher than Graco, so there isn’t much difference. The Britax is on sale right now, and people who have them swear by them. But the Graco and BabyTrend are cheaper, even without a sale. Maybe this weekend we will go car seat shopping. Though I don’t really know where to go to do that. There is a Babies-r-Us and a USA Baby, and then of course Target and Walmart. And of course, if I do decide which seat I want, then I need to decide, do I need a boot or coverall? Chances are yes, being born in February, she will get cold. And do I get a girly one or a neutral one for reuse? Most places say she will use it for maybe 6-8 months or so, so being able to reuse it is a plus. Of course our next could be a girl, or it could be a boy and he can deal with it. Or I can buy a new cover. Can you see why my brain is melting?!? Though after reading some reviews, I think BabyTrend is back off the list. Maybe we will just go play with some seats and wait a little longer to buy one. I would like to return it if she doesn’t fit right in it. If you have any advice, let me know. (By the way, Mom, if I haven’t said “thanks for letting me use your CR account” yet, thanks for letting me use it!)