Just Another Jenn

One of the weird things about living here is that several times during the year the  traffic turns thick, like pudding, brimming with out of town license plates. People drive poorly around here as it is, as there is a preponderance of elderly drivers in really nice cars with big engines (not a safe combo, just fyi).  However, when the tourists show up and you add the congestion to the senior driving it is just plain ridiculous. Accidents everywhere and lots of middle fingers.

The last town we lived in wasn’t exactly in a tourist destination - people don’t travel to Turlock…they just end up there. Big difference. Anyway, when you live your normal life in a place where people come to celebrity stalk and play, you can get annoyed with the tourism pretty quick.  Just driving to pick up your dry cleaning turns into a snarl of traffic and people trying to figure out which exit will get them to Clint Eastwood’s house. (answer is: he no longer lives in downtown Carmel but in a gated community in Carmel Valley, your search is futile)

So, you try really hard to just ignore these major events that make this normally sleepy town into a busy anthill filled with Lexus’s and digital cameras. However, the AT&T National Pro-Am is not an event you can ignore. It is a golf tourney at Pebble Beach that pairs celebrities with professional goflers. I think there are something like 25,000 to 50,000 extra people in town (5,000 of that is Justin Timberlake’s entourage). Some of the visitors come for the golf but I think most come to celebrity watch/stalk.

We aren’t attending the Pro-Am this year though, we had fun last year and I did get to stand right next to Justin Timberlake (wow) but things are just too busy this year to fit it in. Instead I will just deal with all of the traffic and tourists looking for directions to this place or that. I have to say though, waking up this morning to a picture of Justin Timberlake playing golf on the cover of my local newspaper was a treat. Part of me just feels good knowing that he is sleeping probably less than 2 miles from where I live. Yikes, that sounds creepy. What I meant to say was, he is close, I can feel it. Wow, that was worse.

Okay, really I’m just going to end this post now before I get labled a stalker…again. (the last time was just really a mix up, not sure why Justin had to get all formal with the police and what not).

So, I wanted to write all about my experience with birthing Elijah. I had a great story to tell about how the anesthesiologist was just like the doctor from Knocked Up and how he told me that I have scoliosis just as he was shoving the needle in my back. I also wanted to talk about the hospital experience as a whole but then I remembered…..

I am on maternity leave from THAT HOSPITAL. The one which provides me and my family with a regular paycheck and insurance. So writing about my experience there, should it be anything less than perfect, would be….stupid. And my friends, I try to limit the stupid in my life to the weekends only.

Instead I will tell you that I am not good at pushing out babies unless there is pitocin involved and where there is pitocin….there are epidurals. After 13 hours at a 4 and lots of walking, massaging, and praying I finally gave up my vision of a natural birth and once the epidural was in, baby was out in 1.5 hours. In case you are wondering if you choose to wait until right before you push to get an epidural and you have your baby at 2 am in the morning…you will still be numb at about 12 noon the next day. Super.

He was so perfect, just like they all are when they’re born. The air gets sucked out of the room and you feel like angels are siting on your bed, watching you welcome a little miracle into your arms. I hate pregnancy, sorry peeps but it is true. I turn into a hormonal maniac. However, giving birth is magical and completely worth 9 months of cankles, crying and horrible clothes that all somehow involve bows and or things that tie.

Eli will be 3 months old on Friday and I am just weeks from returning to work. He is an amazing baby, all smiles and coos - he is just what I always wanted him to be. He sleeps like a champ and looks just like his brothers (that is to say, just like his father). While I am still bitter that I never birthed a dark haired, dark eyed little portuguese baby I am still in love with all of them.

To all of you that have inquired about the website and why I haven’t been writing - honestly the transition to 3 children was really overwhelming. Joshua had an extremely hard time with the change and required a lot of my time. Also, since having Eli we entertained for Thanksgiving (I fed 13 people), we did Christmas (again 13 people) and we moved to a new house the week after Eli got over pneumonia. Really, it hasn’t been a barrel of monkeys at our house these days.

We are however, settled and I am intent on enjoying these next few precious weeks before I go back to work and experience yet another transition.

Here are some pics to make you smile….

Okay this doesn’t count as a real post because it is just an update on my status: I am still alive.

Things got crazy, then really busy, then I got the flu and then I got a new job. So much to tell but I don’t have time on account of the lingering flu and the new job. Good news is I will be obligated to post tomorrow because…

We have the big ultrasound appointment tomorrow!!!! So, sometime tomorrow afternoon we can hopefully announce whether we will be having Jumanji or Darjeeling. Stay tuned!!!