Moving again

So, I'm taking a breather from packing the house to blog about packing the house. I feel like I am becoming something of a pro at moving. I'm not thrilled about that, but it's true. And I've kind of got a system by now.

I didn't move at all as a kid. My parents decided they wanted us to stay in the same school district when we were growing up, so we were lucky that we didn't move when I was young. My parents moved into the house I grew up in a few months before I was born, when my dad was still in the Army, but he retired from active duty when I was about 3, and we stayed until my parents divorced about 16 years later. By then, I had started making up for lost time myself, as a young adult.

I moved a couple times before going to college, and 4 times while I was an undergrad. Nothing extraordinary for a young person starting out...we start out renting cheapo little apartments, our needs change, we want to live somewhere else or we get restless, or we have bad roommates. Whatever, you live and learn.

Once I got married and then later divorced, I decided I wanted to stay somewhere for a while, and I bought a condo. I lived there, in my condo in Seattle, for about 3 years before I decided I wanted to become a travel nurse. I packed most of my belongings in my best friend's garage, and started taking contracts around the country. I lived in about 6 different places, moving about every 6 months, and enjoyed it. Then I ended up in Portland, and met my future husband there.

I'm not sure why, but we've been moving ever since. Most of it was within Portland, a couple of the homes we had were actually second homes, times that he was working in a different city from where we lived, so we were actually renting two places. But by the time we had been together 1 year we had lived in 3 different places already (4 if you count the second place we got in Seattle when he worked up there). Now we are preparing to move to home #9 for us, in just 6 years together.

I think I might be a little crazy this way, but all this moving has made me a box hoarder. I never throw out my moving boxes until they are no longer usable. I stash them everywhere (this time we have had a great basement where I could flatten them all and put them under the basement stairs, but we had to be pretty creative at our last place). I write on the tape that I close the box with, so I can rip it off and re-label it the next time. If the box is actually written on itself (I always use a black Sharpie) then I just reuse it for the same thing next time.

Every time I have to move again, I see these little idiosyncracies that I've developed over the years of moving, and it makes me wonder if other people are this way. I know we aren't the only ones who move so often. It hasn't really been for any particular reason, and we aren't in the military (obviously), but just one thing or another. I sometimes wonder if we will ever just buy a home and settle down, but I don't know. Even when you buy a home, you rarely end up just staying in it forever. I mean, how do you know it's your last move? You don't.

So, I'm doing it again. It's tiring, but in some ways I like the organizing that packing and unpacking forces you to do. We've reduced our things about as much as we can at this point. Usually I use several weeks for packing, from the non-essentials to the last-minute things, but this time I had to force myself to keep studying, and trust that we could get it done in a week when I was done. It is the kind of lifestyle that my grandparents' generation couldn't really imagine, but it seems pretty common these days. Home is where you make it, I guess.

Milestones

I graduated, yay! And then, I took my National Certifying Examination (boards) yesterday, and passed! Yay! So now I have completed all the requirements for licensure as a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and just have to wait for the state of Oregon to grant my license. And wait for credentialling at my hospital, which will hopefully happen in time for me to start work by July 5.

So, that's great. I had been studying for boards since January, but once I graduated on the 7th, all I had to do was study. I'm not the best at concentrating on dull material for hours on end, especially at the end of this long marathon of a program, and especially while pregnant, with that hormone-induced fog pregnancy can cause. I love anesthesia, but studying in that format was hard, and two and a half weeks of it nearly drove me mad. In addition, finding a good study spot was hard. I liked to study at the library, but I couldn't get comfortable there. I could only last a couple hours before my back or my butt started complaining too much and I would have to leave. So then I studied at home for the last week or so, which was much more comfortable, but our city has been tearing up the street we live on (a relatively busy one) for a month or so, and the noise right outside the window was at times unbelievable. I used earplugs, barricaded myself in the back of the house, but it still made it tough. I'm so glad that is over, and I don't have to do it again!

Now, my job for the next week is packing the house. More on that later. We move on June 3 to Portland.

Meanwhile, the baby is doing fine. At 23 weeks, I am finally feeling what I recognize to be kicking, which is kind of fun. I've chosen a bunch of beautiful Amy Butler fabrics to make a crib set out of, all in pinks and oranges, and am looking forward to unpacking the house, getting some baby furniture, and sewing that all up. We had another ultrasound this week because our little girl wouldn't move enough to see the cord insertion and all of her spine last time, so we got to peek at her again, and she seems to be doing great.

My only major complaint in the last few weeks has been the heartburn. It just gets worse as time goes on...I really don't think doing anything more with the band would help, as I can already eat quite a bit and I don't think there is any over-restriction issue by any means. It seems pretty clear that as the baby takes up more room, the heartburn gets worse. It doesn't matter what I put in my stomach. So I was on Pepcid for a while, then Prilosec...then both...all while taking lots of tums every day. Finally I called my OB and he put me on Protonix, which has helped a lot more, but doesn't last all day, so in the evenings it's still tums or an occasional Pepcid. Ugh. It's really a bummer.

But all in all, I would have to agree with everyone who says the 2nd trimester is a good time in pregnancy. Packing the house makes me more tired this time than when we did it 6 months ago, but that might have as much to do with everything that has already happened this month (graduating, studying and taking boards) as it does with being pregnant. I'll be in the 3rd by the time I start work, and I hope I am able to work until the end, but I can see how it could get hard.

Whew...

I finished my coursework last week, and am graduating this Friday. Wow! There is so much to do, and so little time, it seems. I am trying to study as much as I can. My family will be coming in on Thursday for the Friday graduation banquet, which is also my hubby's birthday.

Then after that, a couple more weeks of studying, and hopefully I can schedule my board exam for right before Memorial Day, so I'll have about a week to pack up and move on June 1. We are moving back to Portland. I received 3 job offers, and accepted a position at my former hospital, which I am very excited about. It sounds like it is going to be a great opportunity in a great department. We just got back yesterday from Portland, after spending the weekend looking at houses and apartments. We chose a lovely place in Northeast Portland.

And! We just got back from our anatomy ultrasound. Baby looks healthy, although she wouldn't move enough to get a good look at the cord. Yes, it's a girl! My hubby couldn't believe it...his family rarely produces girls, he has two sons now, and he kept asking if the tech was sure it was a girl. But the images were pretty clear. I had a pretty strong feeling we were having a girl, but didn't want to be set on that, so it's nice to have the pictures and be able to pick a name and not think of the baby as "it" anymore.

So, things are moving along quite quickly...we are busy, but happy and feeling fortunate. I'm healthy, and so far the weight gain seems on track. I'm definitely feeling anxious about it, mainly about losing it afterward, but trying not to worry too much. The good thing is that I still have restriction even though I had fill removed around 10 weeks (or whenever that was). So I have no reason to think the band won't work for me after delivery. I'll just have to get used to eating the old way again...I've been satisfying my cravings through this pregnancy, although trying not to go overboard. I'm not in an "eating for two" mentality (I'm obviously getting enough calories for baby) but when I want something, I go ahead and have it. :)

I do feel lucky that I was banded before getting pregnant, because I think I would be eating way more without it. I've gained about 12 pounds at this point; who knows how much without the band?? With all the risks associated with excessive weight gain during pregnancy, especially for those of us on the "fluffy" side pre-pregnancy, I'm glad I have some help in keeping it in check.

So, I don't know how much blogging is going to happen in the next few months, but I will try to keep some updates coming as time goes along. And some pictures, at some point...