And then Sparky rolled in his grave.

We have reached a new low as overprotective pet parents. We bought our cats their own water fountain, which circulates and filters their beverages. We continue to have issues with Lulu peeing outside of her litter box. She's already visited the vet once about it, and he diagnosed her with crystals in her urine. It makes it hurt for her to use the bathroom, and she's associated the litterbox with pee pain, and therefore, tries to pee elsewhere in the hopes that it won't hurt. Which is gross, and unsanitary and not good. And I feel bad for her and her little cat peehole, but most of the time, I discover the floor pee because I STEP IN IT. Barefoot.

The vet recommended that we do what we can to get her to drink more water, as it will help dilute her pee and keep crystals from forming. We'd put additional water bowls out around the house, but that wasn't working. So now they have a fancy kitty bubbler. Between that, and the recent purchase of an expensive cat brush to help with Thor's hairballs, I feel like a real sucker. And I know somewhere Sparky is laughing at me. I can't help it though, I love the little nuggets.

Even though they do things like... waking me up at 5:30 on my birthday by throwing up in our bedroom. Poor Thory's heartburn was obviously acting up again. I cleaned it up and thought I'd get back to sleep right away, but instead the baby decided she was starving, so I just got up and had breakfast and figured I'd nap later (as I always do!)

I had a fabulous birthday, other than the cat puke. Mom and I hung out and did a little shopping, we went out for dinner and I got to pet Chuckie for awhile, toothless wonder that he's become in his old age.

And overall, my first week of funemployment went well. I ended up having errands and trips every day, which I think helped the transition. I had my baby-related doctors visits, I went up to LA to visit some girlfriends, I went up to LAX at the last minute to pick Ingrid up at the airport (I thought she was coming in on Wednesday, but it was actually Tuesday. Thank goodness she texted me at 8 to say that her flight [which landed at 9:20] was on time, and that gave me enough time to throw my butt in the car and put the pedal to the metal) and on Thursday night, Tim and I went to Childbirth 101 class at Mission Hospital.

It's the only real childbirth class they offer through the hospital. With a 95% epidural rate and a 30% csection rate, the idea of lamaze is rather passe, I guess. I was worried that the class was going to be all semantics (eg: this is where you park. This is the check in desk - all of which is good to know, but not necessarily what I consider VITAL information. I mean, it's a hospital. I assume there's going to be signs, and that I can ask someone "excuse me, where should I go to push out this human baby?") The class is taught by a labor and delivery nurse and it was actually really great - it covered basically what your whole experience is going to be like from check in to discharge, including how normal labor should progress, how the baby gets out of your body and how they'll clean you up afterwards. She also discussed what would happen if you need intervention during delivery (we got to see both the internal and external monitors) and saw an animated video of a csection (I nearly puked. I can't even watch while they draw blood - I certainly don't want to know what's going on behind the curtain.)

One of the things that I love is Mission Hospital's "Baby First" policy. Because research has shown that during the first hour of a baby's life it's crucial that the baby bond to its parents (more importantly, the mother) Mission's policy is that if you have a normal birth, once that baby is out, they put it on your chest skin to skin, so the baby can hear your heartbeat and smell your mommy smell and start getting acclimated to the world (if the mom has an emergency c-section, once the baby has been checked, they will have the dad do skin to skin contact ASAP.) Don't get me wrong - half the time I still feel like I'd be okay if Sequins wanted to stay safe inside me forever, but the idea of being able to have her lay on my chest and look at me and get to know Tim and I as her mommy and daddy made me burst into tears during class. Mission is also big on having you try to breastfeed in the first three hours, and the RN we met was just so nice. I'm excited to deliver our little friend, come October.

It wasn't all tearful stuff though, no worries. The RN teaching the class was super funny and up front about all of the weird and wonderful biological stuff that's going to go on during delivery and recovery. Tim got a couple of good jokes in too - the nurse was reminding all of waddling ol' preggos to avoid high heels or platforms in the final months, just because our balance is off, etc etc, and any fall requires a trip to get checked out at the hospital. And then Tim pipes up "yeah, plus it's a lot harder to get high heels properly positioned in the stirrups." Thanks honey, always thinking.