Welcome to the World Little Girl!

So, when I went to my doctor's check up on Monday, I certainly never thought I'd be giving birth to a 7 lb. 4 oz. baby girl the next day! Darcy Anne was born at 2:22pm Tuesday and she's a precious little bundle with lots of thick, dark hairs.

We've been at the hospital all week, and its been emotionally exhausting. All in all she's doing well considering she has been born a month early, but it hasn't come without some difficulties to be honest. She has had a hard time with eating & billiruibin levels, etc. So, while things are getting better with each and every feeding, its VERY slow going. Too slow, in fact, to take her home with me when I'm released today. Let me tell ya, this is killing me. The thought of not being with her here, and not having her with us there...this is excrutiating. I love her and want her sweet innocent little self to not have to be alone. Or working so very hard. So what do I do?

The hospital is good enough to let me hang out as much as I need/want. But part of me also knows I should spend some time with Sebastian at home. I just don't know what to do. And maybe I'm only thinking too highly of myself to believe that Darcy actually knows when mama is nearby and does better when I am?

So yes I'm a little achey, but my heart is achey more.

Doin' What's Best...

Last week I went to my regular doctor's visit and told the nurse my blood pressure would probably be up because I'd had such a stressful week. Yep, I was right. Well, just to make sure it wasn't anything more than the stress I'd been experiencing with kidlet and stupid end of the year projects, stressing about the baby's room not even started let alone ready, needing lots of things still for the upcoming addition to the family, hubby's warped (in my opinion) priorities (like painting the garage), etc. the doctor had me come back this week. The week hadn't been nearly as stressful, so I thought no big deal. My blood pressure was higher than before! Really high. Seriously high. So I was send to the hospital for tests.

Overnight. Blood pressure checked every 15 minutes because it wasn't coming down. 24 hour urine protein screening. Baby monitors. And uncomfortable hospital bed. (Why is it that we pay so freakin' much when we're at the hospital, even with insurance, and they can't provide a comfortable bed? I mean you're confined there, the least they could do would be to give you top o'the line Seely Posturpedic Sleep Number sort of thing.) My tests came back ok, but not without the doctor putting me on bed rest.

I did ask for that to be a little more defined. Basically I'm stuck doing the minimal of everything for the next 4-6 weeks. Lots of nothing. I still even have to have the grandparents watch my little bug.

I can sit at the computer (which, thankfully, means I can do some work from home). I can cook (oh, lucky me). He even said driving is stressful, so don't do it. *sigh* I think I'm being forced to catch up on some photo archiving (because I can't really call it scrapbooking in the modern sense), some fluff reading (and I think he'll have to see if the library has the book I've shown here), and perhaps this means I can talk hubby into restarting Netflix? (yeah, that's my positive spin on it)

Everyone knows its bad to let me get too bored. Just wait...you'll be in for a treat.

The REAL World

What happens when 20 seasons go by and The Real World is still on MTV?

Yeah, can you believe this season is The Real World XX? Somehow I think its only appropriate that they are defining it by the roman numerals because it reflects exactly what the show has become...some double X soft core porn programming rather than the sociological experiment it began as.

I admit that on the rare occasion of channel flipping I will sometimes stop on the show for a few minutes (because I can't stomach an entire episode anymore) and lament the "days of yore" when it was actually an really fun & interesting show that really sparked the entire reality TV genre. Remember those first seasons in NY or London when the cast were actually intelligent (or at least fairly so) and had some talent and some goals? Now it seems the casts are nothing but oversexed bums who really have no real goals.

Well I was curious to find out if my impression was actually true, so I did a brief websearch of "where are they now?" Real World cast members. Guess what? It seems that those early cast members have, indeed, gone on to do some pretty impressive things with their lives. They are doctors, Disney executives, movie actors, even a D.A. here in Wisconsin. And the cast members from the more recent years? One was arrested for grand theft auto & prostitution, another several have been in Playboy, and more yet continue to make their "careers" by being on multiple seasons of MTV's Challenge shows, dating other cast members. Yeah, I get that those more recent cast members aren't as old as the beginning season members, but it was a matter of looking at what they did shortly after their stint on the reality show ended.

I think something has most definately changed in the mindset & intellect of young people in 20 years time. The sex, the fights, the illegal activity...its not only become a way of life but entertainment, as well! Or perhaps its because it has become entertainment that its become a way of life?

I wish that people would go back to being real. REAL responsible. REAL ambitious. REAL aware. That's The Real World kids.