Life is total madness....

     It's been so long since I've written.  Every week I check all of the other blogs I follow but fail to update my own.  Life has been total madness.
    At the end of February my land lady informed us that our apartment no longer allowed pets and that we had five days to get all of ours out.  This means we have to move.  Luckily we found friends and family to watch our two cats and three dogs while we searched for a new place to call home.  It took longer than we hoped, but we found a condo that would allow the dogs (I didn't mention the cats....).  We are scheduled to move at the end of the month.
     We thought we were home free.  Then my boss informed me that she was not allowing me to work in the pet salon after the end of the month because she was concerned for the safety of my baby.  That is crap.  She is not concerned, she has hired new people who want a full schedule which she couldn't provide them while I was still working.  It is illegal for her to force me on maternity leave, howerve, I am an independent contractor so if I push the issue all she has to do is fire me and then I'm stuck with no job and no uneployment.  She wants me to come back to work three weeks after my son is born.  Excuse my language, but what the fuck?!  My only hope right now is to pick up as many hours at the register as possible (she's still allowing me to work the boutique) and pray that I can get enough grooming clients at home that I can cover my bills.  Brad still isn't working consistantly and it's driving me nuts.  It's not his fault.  His company is just slow.  Every week they promise him work will start soon.  Every week we hope.
     So that is life right now.  My son is due in one short month, I have to move in just over a week, and I'm not sure how we will be paying our bills.  But all I can do is hope and try my best to plan.  Wish me luck!

22 weeks 6 days.

     I love that this is how much life is measured now.  By weeks and days, by trimesters.  I can't believe how quickly this is flying by.  From what I've read, Liam only weighs a little over a pound now; but he already kicks so hard he can move my whole belly.  He usually does this when I'm in the tub and turn on the tap to add more water.  I think the sound of the water gets him going.  The first time I ever felt him move was in the tub at 12 or 13 weeks.  I was refilling the water to get it just a little warmer and all of a sudden I felt something poke me from the inside just below my belly button.  I wasn't sure if it was him or not, but I was afraid that I might be cooking him so I jumped out of the tub. 
     I always wondered how women could miss the feeling of being pregnant once the had their precious babies in their arms.  Now I think I get it.  In general I've had an easy pregnancy.  Even as much as I bitched about morning sickness it wasn't half as bad as it could have been.  I feel pretty awesome.  I'm growing a human after all.  How cool is that?  I feel pretty much exactly like I did prepregnancy. But what I will miss is feeling my son wiggle, kick, punch, and squirm in my belly.  I imagine I might forget how awesome that was once I get to watch him do all of those things.  But it is completely natural now to feel this other person moving inside of me.  Brad just recently felt Liam move for the first time and thought it was awesome.  But I feel EVERYTHING and I'm the only one who can say that.  It's like my special bond with him and I just adore it.
     It's getting to be crunch time as far as baby prep goes and I am completely slacking.  I haven't cleared out our room to make room for the baby.  I haven't finished gathering the addresses for my baby shower invites.  I haven't finished any of the hospital forms they say I should have finished weeks ago.  I haven't even called to reserve my spot in a birthing class.  I've attempted to make the task of preparing for the baby a little more manageable by making an actual to do list to follow and check things off as I go.  This has helped a little but I'm still a mess.  But at least I've gotten things started.
     The only thing I am TOTALLY on top of right now is diaper collecting.  Brad and I settled on using cloth diapers before I got pregnant and now that I get to buy them I am completely obsessed.  I've got prefolds, pockets, one size, you name it!  I'm trying to focus on collecting a variety so I can find the one that works best for Liam when he finally arrives.  So far my favorite (which just arrived in the mail today) is the BestBottom diaper.  It's a one size (meaning I can use it from birth until potty training) and the inserts snap in, so I can reuse the shell as long as it's clean.  I can't decide if it's sad or not that the highlight of my day is playing with diapers....
     Anyway, back to my to do list now!  Wish me luck!
     XOXO
PS: Any advice on preparing for baby is totally welcome!!!!