Italy was wonderful – beyond wonderful – but I am SO glad to be home.

I think that had this trip been planned for even a week later I would not have been able to enjoy it anywhere near as much.  I had a much better sightseeing experience for the first week than the last.  That said, I had a splendid ‘relaxing’ experience during the last part of the trip and the place we stayed was totally conducive to just kicking back and taking it eeeeeaaaaassssyyyyyy.

Which I did.

But the trip back home.  Oh my.  It was pretty brutal.  There’s a lot of difference between a 7 & 1/2 hour trip to Europe & a 9 hour trip back home.  Especially when one’s doing the first as a relatively svelte 34 weeker & the second as a rotund 36 weeker.

Weirdly, I gained no weight while there.  Not complaining.  I was really afraid I was carbo-loading the little guy and he was going to pay me back by being born with a handful of spaghetti carbonara clenched in one chubby fist.

Good news is that although he’s still measuring in the 82nd percentile overall, his head is a bit more in proportion now – at 89% rather than 97%.  More good news is that he passed his first NST with flying colors, and the sonogram tech estimated his weight at a perfectly appropriate 6.5#.  Even better news is that my godawful case of Italian constipation seems to be resolving itself.  Seems my poor innards like the comforts of home over the lap o’luxury.  Actually, I suspect they like the pomegranate juice I’ve been chugging as well as the coffee from D’Amico’s that should be marketed as a regularity aid.  Anyway – too much digression into poop talk for my taste, but it was the one black mark (so to speak) on my trip and it’s a relief to feel happier internally than I have for a while.

Less happy was I with the note I got from the kennel – Nellie was taken to the vet two days ago for an outbreak of little cuts or skin eruptions.  They think she cut herself running in the woods (super common for whippets, who have insanely thin skin) and then since she’s under a lot of stress, developed a bacterial infection.  She’s on antibiotics now, and she did lose at least 5 pounds (from 30#, she’s down to just under 25#)  The kennel owners feel just horrible, and they’ve taken Nellie into their own home instead of keeping her out in the kennel with the others.  “She sure does like down comforters, doesn’t she?”  was the funniest comment.  Um, yeah.  She pretty much owns ours, these days.  We’re leaving to pick her up in about an hour and I’m as excited to see her as you can imagine.  I have missed that dog something terrible, photos via the internet notwithstanding.

Other exciting news, I got to speak with my folks last night, which was great, though I’m not sure I held up my end of the conversation, being nearly comatose with exhaustion.  I can’t wait to see them in early October, and my mom told me she’d bring some of my baby books for Thor – I didn’t even know she’d saved any of them, so I’m just giddy with happiness.  Realize that a large number of my baby-raising fantasies have to do with me reading quietly to Thor.  This is likely because being read to – and then reading to myself – was such a HUGE part of my childhood, and forms such a large part of my happy baby memories, but it tickles me to think I’ll be reading books to him that I was read to as a little girl.

Can’t.  Wait.

Not a whole lot else going on.  No, that’s not true.  As my first day of SAHM-ing, I have scads of plans – most of which probably won’t get done today, tomorrow, or even this week.  (But I can plan, and oh boy, it’s good to make lists!)

• finish pre-registering at the hospital
• file for short-term disability through my union
• order a carseat online
• clean up my desk/office space!
• finish the baby sampler I started a couple of years ago – it’s just waiting for his name & birthdate.  Can’t fill in the birthday yet, obviously, but his name is good to go…
• finish a baby sweater I started then forgot about.
• cook dinner for my darling husband
• do another couple of loads of laundry, including, perhaps, a load of baby things!
• watch the Boy finish moving his office items out of what will be our bedroom.
• direct him in moving things from our old bedroom to our new bedroom
• go buy a crib & changing table & possibly dresser for nursery.
• assemble same, since we’ll likely be buying at IKEA.
• buy wall decals for nursery & stick ‘em up.
• buy these wonderful felted bird rattles I saw on Etsy so that I can turn them into a crib mobile that will be disassemble-able in a few months whereupon Thor can gum them into shapelessness.
• take a belly photograph, since I vaguely remember promising my mother last night that I would do so.  She is a cruel, cruel woman…
• pack my hospital bag (which will involve going to a drug store for items I’ve never before bought – Depends, hemorrhoid wipes, etc.)
• download all my Italy photos and label/PS Elements them into webbable photos

Wow.  Quite the list.  And I didn’t even have to think about these items.  There will be many more to come over the next couple of weeks, I’m sure.  Enough to feel overwhelming and exhausting, I’m sure.  But for the moment?  For right now, I’m feeling giddy that I can concentrate on these things and not have to try to squeeze them in to my previous 2.5 free hours per day once work/commute was done.  Woohoo for free time!