August 21, 2008

Older and.....more exhausted?

Today is my 34th birthday. I am 19 weeks pregnant. That's pretty much enough for me.

But if I could ask for just one gift it would be......SLEEP! 8, preferably 12, hours of blissful, uninterrupted sleep!

I am shooting for the stars here people.

Part of why I have been so remiss on my blogging duties is that a "simple" bathroom remodel (ha! if there is such a thing!) turned into our own private torture chamber a few weeks ago and has required all of my time, energy, and late night hours to try to complete it by our "deadline". Like all home remodeling projects, just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We had originally planned on the help of an old neighbor of ours who is an ex-contractor. He has helped us with numerous projects before and with his help we would have long ago knocked this out. Unfortunately, post-demolition, he flaked on us - just never returned our calls (we have since heard through the proverbial grapevine that he is dealing with some serious medical issues, which is really sad... what can you do?). So - it was all on us. Yay.

On the upside, I now know how to tile a bathroom floor and a shower/tub surround. I got so proficient at it in fact, that my forearms have been swollen for days! I did discover that I excel at actually measuring the tiles for cutting and doing all the crazy meticulous work that involves. Oh, and I get to brag about how I am so hardcore that I tiled a bathroom at nearly 20 weeks pregnant. So, there is that.

But, I really pushed myself a little too hard, and we both have stayed up WAY WAY too late for the last 5 or 6 nights in an effort to crank it out in time. Mr. Spicy actually never went to bed last night. As it is, our house guest/renter for the DNC will have to use our downstairs (roommate's) bathroom to shower until Sunday. Four adults sharing a tiny bathroom? We can manage.

But. We are in the home stretch. We have help coming today to finish with the grouting of the perfectly placed tile, and carpet cleaners as well. We still have a multiple page list to finish before tomorrow evening when he arrives....but I can clearly see the flicker of light at the end of the tunnel.

And. It has been really nice (minus the lack of sleep and swollen arms and feet) to work together so closely with Mr. Spicy on such a demanding project. It gave me all new confidence in our ability to work together as a team, to support each other even when we are exhausted and worn down, and to endure frustration and sleep deprivation with our grace and relationship intact. Sounds like a good boot camp for parenthood to me.

Also. I started my new job this week. I am filling in for a friend's nanny who is on maternity leave and even in the midst of this hellish week, I am really enjoying it. I will write more about that later but I can't wait till next week when I will have more energy to give to the girls and more brain cells functioning. The girls are really great. Seriously, two of the easiest kids to care for, ever. Like I said, more on that later.

Ok. This was supposed to be a "short" post bemoaning my lack of sleep - but see how much I have missed writing? I just can't stop.

19 week belly pics (I am seriously popping out now!) and pics of the horrific bathroom, a.k.a. hell on earth, to come soon!

Happy birthday to me!

7 comments:

Meg said...

Happy Birthday my dear.

s.e. said...

Happy birthday to you!!

I am so impressed you have the energy for such a big project and to start a new job. I hope it will all be worth it and you will catch up on your beauty rest soon.

Enjoy YOUR day!

Jen said...

Happy birthday to you!

Lori Lavender Luz said...

Happy birthday, my spicy friend!

annacyclopedia said...

Happy Birthday, Spicy! Many happy returns. We get to be the same age until November when I turn 35. I bet that's the greatest thing you've heard all day, right?

And kudos to you for taking on your bathroom. Manny and I have a ton of projects that we should be tackling, but we are very slow and lazy, so the list just grows, and we just keep ignoring things.

Hope you get some good sleep very soon and I can't wait to see the belly pics.

Denise said...

You are a bad ass, my friend!

I'm glad you are able to see the light now and the craziness will die down a bit soon.

Hope you have/had a smashing birthday!

chicklet said...

Happy birthday, and I'm totally jealous of the bathroom reno. Wanna come do my tiles at 25 weeks pregnant? (joking of course)