A little bit of special: May 2013

Things have been crazy lately. I completely forgot to do a post around eight months so this a joint post. My thesis is taking over my life; I can't wait for it to be done so I can spend time with Matt and Hannah again. Progress reports are due this week so I've spent more time on those and at home this week. It's been a good week.

So I posted a few weeks ago that I was back on the mini-pill. Without going into too many details, it didn't go well. At all. Matt and I ended up talking about things, and he is adamant that he thinks the fall is too soon to be talking about another baby and isn't even sure that another baby is even in the cards. He is worried about our financial stability (a valid point) and admits that it is possible we won't be in a good financial spot ever. So since it appears that it's going to be awhile for we try for another baby, if ever, I decided to get an IUD. I hate taking the pill of any kind, the mini-pill specifically, and he hated all of the barrier methods we were using. I got it on Tuesday; it killed while she was doing it, but wasn't too bad afterward. Some cramping, but nothing too awful. I'm sad about the semi-permanence of it , but at the same time, it's nice to know that we are protected until we change our minds down the road. It is also going to give me the opportunity to lose some weight and get in better shape. Being in better shape will be nice and it may also give me the confidence to let myself be pregnant at a later age. At this point, I don't really feel like being pregnant after 35, but if I'm in way better shape, that might change....

Hannah is growing by leaps and bounds. At her most recent doctor's appointment, she weight 21 pounds and was 28.25 inches tall. She is crawling like crazy now and pulling up on everything. She wants to hold your hands to walk everywhere. We're hearing words like 'dada' and 'mama' which are addressed to the correct person about 50% of the time. She has also said 'cat' a few times; she will chase Luther around like crazy. He is finding solace on the other side of the gate, up on the couch, or up on our bed. He also has taken to hiding under her crib behind the stuff that's under there. She has completely outgrown her 9 month pants and pjs and is on her way to outgrowing her 9 month onsies. She has also grown two teeth. She's turning into a little person.

Sleep has been an issue the last few weeks or so. Lots of waking up during the night or struggling to be put down, so we've had to go back to letting her cry. There have been some rough nights and nap times. Unfortunately Matt has taken the brunt of this since he is the one putting her down most of the time. I've been spending way more time than is healthy at Starbucks working on the thesis.

The stupid thesis is slowly getting finished. I had hoped to have a rough draft done by the 17th, I even took the day off to finish if needed, but it just didn't happen. I put it off too much and spent too much time dilly-dallying. I should have worked on it more last semester. Oh well, no use whining about that. The first three chapters are mostly done and just need editing (as far as I can tell). Chapter four is in progress and chapter five is a bundle of thoughts floating around in my brain.

My advisers have been very unhelpful with this whole process and have given me very little feedback. I don't want this to drag into the summer, unfortunately it's looking more and more likely that is going to happen. But dammit, I am going to finish the stupid fucking thing. I've already had them order my special education stole; I had decided from the beginning that I wasn't going to walk at graduation (which was this afternoon), but I still wanted the stole as a physical representation beyond just the piece of paper. Progress reports are due this week, so now that those are done I can get back to work on the thesis. I really should figure out a way to get work done at home; I'm tired of Starbucks and it's starting to pack on the pounds. I've put on six pounds in the last two months. I also shouldn't know the baristas as well as I do.

I'm looking forward to the summer. We've already made plans to do the zoo with my mom and dad in June and we're spending a few days with the rest of the Story family in Indiana over the fourth of July. We've talking about going to Atlanta in August, but that is still very much up in the air. In general, it will also be nice to just work four day work weeks. I'm guessing I might have a few Fridays to go in for trainings that I missed last summer when I had Hannah, but I'm hoping it won't be too many. It'll just be nice to have less stress.

If you've made it this far, congrats!! Now for the best part: pictures!!

Eight months old!