A few blurbs.

I've been pretty quiet on here lately. I've thought about posting, but then don't really have too much to post about. I've been doing a lot, and yet not much at all. So here are a few little blurbs.

Baby.
He has been kicking like crazy. I've seen it on the outside now, but only if I put a little pressure on my belly somewhere. He's still small enough that my fat and organs soften his blows. He will usually kick several times in a row about 45 seconds apart, and then be still for a couple hours. He probably isn't still, from what we saw on the ultrasound, but is gentle enough that I can't feel him as easily. People can definitely tell now that I'm pregnant. (Though in scrubs, sometimes my patients don't notice.)

Names.
Jamaal and I have started talking about names. I think we are going to have a hard time. I'm not definitely in love with any one name. There are a few I like. One, of which, I took from Jamaal's list. I had him make a list of names up to see what he would come up with. There wasn't a lot there, and several I didn't particularly care for. I haven't yet shown him my list. I have a feeling that I'm not going to want to tell anyone until the baby is born, and the papers are signed, for several reasons.
1. I don't want judgment to sway our decision. One might love or hate our name and I don't want to second guess the name we pick because of someone else's opinion. I can say that I don't care about others' opinions, but with several weeks ahead of me, that is a lot of time to dwell on conversations I might have.
2. I reserve the right to change my mind when I see my baby's face. If he takes on his Irish and Danish heritage over his African heritage I don't want him to be stuck with a name like Deshawn. ;) But also, he might look like a Peter over a Philip when I meet him.

Work.
My nurse manager (the "boss" on our unit) posted some new job openings for different shifts. The most relevant opening is a day position. I currently have a day/night rotation. I have liked it better than working the evening/night rotation that I was hired on with. (I only actually worked that shift for a couple months before a day/night rotation opened up and I took it immediately.) Night shift, I believe, is a good option for me while pregnant. I am hoping I'll be able to work for longer while on night shift when I get to the last couple months. There is simply a little less action at night, and I'm able to sit down and put my feet up. Day shift I am moving all the time. However, after the baby is here, I would like to try a few different career changes. If I can find an opportunity, I would like to get a second part-time job closer to home. I would love it if I could find one where the little gummy bear could come with me. I've looked into child care facilities, but I don't know if they would hire an RN or not. I'll get more serious about it closer to my due date. If I did find a second job, I would decrease my hours at my current job. Because the benefits are hard to beat, I'll go down to 50% (20 hours a week) so I can keep my insurance, etc. The other job, hopefully will just be 2 shifts a week or less. As you can imagine, it would be difficult to coordinate two different jobs if I am rotating between days and nights. There is a straight night opening, but as I sometimes have a hard time staying awake driving home now, when I am able to sleep as much as I desire, I don't feel it is safe for me to be driving home sleep deprived after baby enters the world.

Water Aerobics.
I am so glad I started and have stuck with water aerobics. It feels so good to be in the water workin' my butt off. :D I have to alter a few of the exercises now, because my belly makes it hard for me to bring my knees up as high as I used to, but for the most part I don't feel I'm doing things much differently...yet. I keep up with my sister-in-law still, so that is a win for me. I have had to cut back just a little to keep my heart rate below 160 (which was my mid-wives' recommendation), but I still get a good work out.

Cooking.
Yesterday I decided to make the Cook's Illustrated recipe: "The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie." I'm not sure the prep work is worth it though. You have to brown the butter. Not much scares me when it comes to baking, pie crusts, bring them on, cheesecake, no problem. But browning butter, I'm shaking in my boots. I'm pretty sure I nearly burnt this butter, but fortunately I didn't. That would have been a lot of butter to waste (because if I was going to take my time to brown butter, I wasn't going to waste it by making a single batch.) Plus, the recipe said it only made 16 cookies. Jamaal loves cookies. He will sit and eat nearly a dozen by himself (and I think he doesn't finish the dozen off only to save a couple for me). If this recipe truly makes the Perfect cookie, I thought, then Jamaal will have a hard time saving those last few for me. Turns out, I think they made 16 giant cookies with the recipe. I would guess a single batch would make 2.5 dozen, and the double batch I made will probably make close to 5. At least I know I'll get a couple for myself. ;) I made the dough yesterday prior to taking my parents out to see Inception. Since I was curious what they would taste like, I baked 6 cookies, and brought one for each of us on the car ride to the theater. They were hot out of the oven. The only thing I regret is not grabbing my nearly empty jug of milk to take a swig out of when I finished my cookie. The jury is still out as to whether or not this recipe makes the perfect cookie. It was good, but I don't know that it was worth browning the butter (and therefore nearly peeing my pants) over.  

Pelvic Rest.
Sucks. Big time.