Baby Shower Madness

Baby shower is tomorrow. The planning is almost done. Good! It's been stressful and I'm not even the planner! This is the end of the 36 weeks. Yippee! I'm REALLY in home stretch now. Baby births from 37-40 are considered FULL TERM! Woohoo. 40 to 42 weeks is considered post term. Post term? Who the heck wants a late baby? If I was 42 weeks pregnant, I'd be jumping around and eating all sorts of stuff in an attempt to jumpstart labor. Although I'm now on modified bedrest, I still haven't had any fun because between doing things for the baby shower and trying not to go into labor BEFORE the shower, I haven't had much leeway. Next week, I'm going to go to the movies, and maybe have a dinner out with Mark (since we won't need a babysitter). Gotta get some date nights in there - these are our last days as married bachelors.


Mark's been busy painting some old furniture for the baby's room. The family left behind some old brown wood pieces that he's painted white. We got a couple things from Ikea earlier in the week, so we might be finished with baby room purchases. We skipped the showroom, as I always do, and went directly to the warehouse part of Ikea and still it took us about 30+ minutes trying to find what we needed, that I'd already seen online, but had a tough time finding. Afterwards, just standing that long gave me cramps for the duration of the night. First sign that off of bedrest doesn't mean much anymore. Now that I've been set free, nature's hemming me up anyhow. There are natural limits to how much I can do since I'm so much less flexible and energetic.

I tried to dust the other day and accidentally sprayed a little pledge on our wood floor and later, BLAMMO! I fell so quickly that I didn't notice I was falling, I only knew that I had already fallen once I looked up at the room as I sat on my left buttock, dazed. It pissed me off, scared me a little and definitely hurt my pride. I haven't fallen like that since I was a little kid. But I read online that falling at this point of pregnancy is super common because your center of balance is off and the pledge didn't help. I had to Murphy's Oil Soap the floor to get it back to being tacky enough to walk on with socks. But I still look at the wooden step-up landing with a bit of contempt every time I walk that way. LOL.

The baby shower is sort of a housewarming of sorts because it's the first time most people will have seen our new digs. So it's been more stressful because we're trying to get everything all perfect. My definition of perfect, however, is fading fast. I'm learning to lower my standards, which I hear is a good thing in preparation for motherhood. I mopped a floor yesterday and ended with 'good enough'. I wasn't about to get on my knees and scrub corners - whatever the swifter got, it got. Mark does tons of stuff around the house, but it's just too much for one person so now that I am allowed to move, I sneak and do housework when he's away at work. I got in trouble about the pledge and dusting, though. "Why were you dusting? What were you dusting?" I pointed to the plantation blinds and he said, "what wrong with them?" And I silently replied, "that why it was I who was dusting! " He didn't even see the dirt that was caked on. The lady before was nice, but nobody's housekeeper. I'm not big on it either, but there are just things I can't ignore and she was a little better at ignoring stuff. Like the 1950s kitchen and bathroom that has never been updated. This house is like a jiggier, smaller version of my parents' (now my mom's) house back in Missouri. It's cute, but nobody bothered to update the obvious. The addition is all cute because it was built later, but the rest of the stuff is pretty much standard issue original. No ventilation in the kitchen and not a screen window to be found in the front half of the house. When I cook, it smells like a chinese restaurant for the next 2 hours. We're working on that with the management company.

My knitting has goten pretty good. I can knit and perl and I'm making a scarf while waiting for the special velour yarn for the baby's blanket to come. I ran out of it and forgot it's only available online. Here's my latest scarf:



I've figured out that stockinette stitch rolls up, so I put a border or garter around the edges of the scarf to make it lie flat.

That's it. Hopefully I'll be back with pictures from the shower. Happy weekend.

35 weeks and counting...

Sorry I've been too bored to blog. The novelty of being a walking biology project is wearing thin. I've ramped up my efforts to stay engaged with the world at large these last couple of weeks. I've learned to purl in addition to the normal knit stitch, so I've started knitting a scarf in stockinette stitch with a garter stitch border to keep it from rolling up around the edges. If this is greek to you, ignore it. It's boring knitter talk and to think that I was a non-knitter 2 or 3 months ago.

In other useless skills, I've learned all 53/54 African country names and locations. The number fluctuates according to who consider which islands as countries and Western Sahara, the country next to Morocco, is disputed as being a country. By whom, I don't know, but it's usually listed as being anywhere from 52 to 54 countries.

I'd learned them before as a child, but then the country names changed. And I learned it again freshmen year at Howard as part of induction processes for our freshmen year mini-sorority and again the names changed. Zaire no longer exists - it's the Democratic Republic of Congo(Kinshasa), as opposed to the plain ol' Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). Rhodesia is really old school - hasn't existed in awhile. The islands considered countries are generally Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius and Cape Verde.

I've now undertaken the US States, since I've rocked Africa so well and the only states that throw me are all the teeny NE ones. I've started on Europe, but I've got to admit that I lose interest when I get too deep into the Eastern European former USSR stuff. There are SO many small countries that it's just overwhelming a little bit. I'm good with the nice big ones, but there are so many small ones that don't make the news often. Of course, I know all the countries whose food I like - anything close to Greece or Turkey is yummy! The best part of LA cuisine to me is the Turkish/Greek/Armenian stuff. What they do with chicken and garlic sauce is amazing! Not a big fan of Mexican yet, although I've had some truckstand tacos that make you want to smack your mama.

I'm reading all the child-rearing baby books again now that it's getting closer. I find them mostly boring after about 20 minutes, but there's good info in them. I'm also packing my hospital bag - well, collecting stuff in a corner of the nursery. Making wall art stuff for the baby's room. Found some baby pictures of me (not too many exist, but luckily these 3 from a professional photog have come in handy) to play with in Photoshop. Here's some of my handiwork:

got changed to this:

and this:

from this:

and this:

gave me this:

Bottom line is I'm trying to be useful in a very un-useful state. I've had at least one day a week for the last week where something random made me want to cry. Today I looked up something in the yellow pages for Burbank and got all misty realizing that we don't live there anymore. Pictures of peoples' kids and other things just make me all borderline emotional. I say borderline because I have some type of emotional crossing guard who observes dispassionately and stops the teary traffic from making its way through, but I at least see it across the intersection, threatening to run as soon as the light turns green. My great aunt has a convention and can't come to my baby shower, and this nearly sent me into depression yesterday. All my crazy out of town friends and sister were trying to come which I think is overkill and not that necessary didn't upset me, but my in-town great aunt and her best friend's absence made me all sad.

I bore myself because I'm starting to get complain-y. I don't like that. I don't complain for long. If something bugs me, I change it. If it's unchangeable and necessary I accept it. I think the 3rd trimester is a serious test of patience. I've adjusted to a lot of things, but now that I'm gaining about a pound a week, things change too quickly to adjust. When I think I've learned how to sleep comfortably, the baby learns a new trick. When I think that I've escaped stretch marks or waddling, it creeps up on me. I think the low quality of sleep I'm getting is also making me crotchety, and I can't really unload on anyone because I'm bored with the words coming out of my mouth. Same old tune again? My back hurts, my stomach hurts, hemorrhoids aren't your friend, I can't eat much, I can't breathe, yaddah yaddah yaddah. It's so unoriginal. Every mother has gone through this, so it' not some unique experience.

But I want my cake and to eat it too. I want the baby to stay in - the longer the better. It gives me time to finish his room once I'm off of bedrest, it is also easier to care for him on the inside that in the world, so I'm not rushing him by any means. I still get my last chance to have a dinner out with Mark, I get a chance to see a movie or two before he's born, so I definitely want this to last to term.

Yet, I'm getting a little tired of feeling CONTINUOUSLY like I'm a balloon waiting to pop. It used to last a day or two maximum, but now that he's growing at leaps and bounds, I've been stretched feeling for at least 4 or 5 days in a row, with no signs of slow-down or relief! Maybe the weekend will be better.

Did I tell you that my inlaws have a webcam and are getting jiggy with technology? My MIL sent me some GREAT pictures of Mark as a baby. That made my day - trying to figure out what our kid is going to look like. My sister also bought a webcam, but we haven't had time to try it out yet. I swear I look forward to the most mundane stuff now...

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a pretty good Valentine's Day despite me not being able to leave the house. Had our first local chinese for dinner. I wasn't super impressed by the food, but the value was excellent and the egg drop soup was great. Mark got me India Arie's new cd - I wanted the actual physical cd for this one - and some really cute flowers. I hadn't expected much, so it was all a pleasant surprise.

I felt a little stomach-achy all day, so I was a bit sluggish and laid back a bit. I'd contemplated us sneaking out to a movie at a strategically picked theatre without much traffic or stairs, but after waking up feeling so-so, I just kept with the program.

Today's Sunday. I've gained 30-35 pounds so far. Only slightly jiggly thighs to show for it - the bulk of it is in the belly, where it should be. I had to go to the bathroom about 6 times last night which is at least 2 more than usual and had a sore stomach all night and into the morning. The last time I had a stomach ache, it was when my cervix shrunk at Xmas, so I'm watching it. However, it shrunk over the course of 5 or 6 days. I'm already only 3 days away from 35 weeks. And even if my cervix goes to 0 in length, that doesn't guarantee that it'll start to dilate. So we can probably make it to 36 weeks with no problems. After that, it's all fair game.

It's hard to tell because I seem to not be able to differentiate Braxton-Hicks from just stomach pain. My tolerance for pain is such that I don't get contractions that feel like contractions, it's just some generic discomfort that I can't pinpoint. But the boy is unfazed. He's moving and rolling around in there as per normal.

As long as I am normal in the steps of going into labor, I haven't experienced the normal signs that labor's coming, including:

• weight stabilization - once your weight stops changing, you're w/in 2 weeks of delivery
• baby dropping - when the baby drops further into the birth canal, he moves less because he is solidly wedged into one place
• lightening - baby moves out from the ribs and makes you feel lighter

So far, I'm just achy and heavy today. I'm feeling better this evening than I was this morning, so maybe it's passed, whatever it is. It's just hard to brand something normal when the norm shifts every 2 to 3 days. I'm gaining at least a pound a week now, so I haven't gotten used to the quick and constant stretching of my belly to accomodate it.

Mark has started sanding down the old dresser so that we can paint it white. Okay, so that HE can paint it white. I can't do any of it - I'm still in denial about not being able to participate. But as the days grow closer and we realize that we're realistically going to have a baby in about a month, we're catching up with our decorating tasks.

I promise new pictures soon. It's just hard to find pants to wear so that I can get a rated-PG belly shot.

34 weeks and counting

I hit 34 weeks yesterday! Woohoo. Major landmark. Next pitstop 36 weeks.

Had an appointment today with a perinatologist to get some more in depth ultrasounds done and the news was all super positive. The doctor thought that my fibroid position still leaves me with a good chance to have a normal vaginal birth. It hasn't grown in awhile - it's 11cm by 12cm and on the top outside of the left side of my uterus. I think they call it subserosal. The baby's head is already lower than the fibroid, so it wouldn't block his exit at the least.

The baby is about 5lbs 14oz already! Woohoo! Big baby. The doctor kept remarking on how big his head was. They couldn't even measure my cervix because his head was so big it wouldn't get out of the way. She then asked about Mark and I said that yes indeed, he has a nice big square head and was a big baby, as was Auntie Lolo. Then she asked me if I was a big baby and I said no, I was 4lbs 11oz and a preemie. She asked why I was a preemie and I said, "I have no idea." After artfully dodging questions about my mom, saying that she wasn't good with details, she told me that his upper arm measurement was long, like mine and that that hints that he'll be tall. More questions about Mark - yes Mark is 6 feet and has uncles that are even taller.

So little Myles is tall, a big baby who is growing quite well despite the fibroid, and in position. I felt SO relieved about him not being some tiny little wormy preemie. She basically said that at about 36 weeks I should go ahead and try to live a normal life for the duration of the pregnancy. My main doctor hinted at this too, so when I see her next week, she might release me from bedrest at 36 weeks. Wow! You mean I could go to church, get my ends trimmed, maybe even go to Lamaze class? What a luxury. I told the lady today that I'm so hard up for outings that I look forward to the doctor visits because I get to drive and leave the house.

Myles is a-coming and it's going well. I think I can sit still for two weeks easy - I've been doing it for so long, what's another two weeks. My friend hadn't told my beautician that I was on bedrest (and I didn't since I never had to call for an appointment I wouldn't be allowed to go to), so she didn't know that I was and thought that I was just being a bad girl since I never went by to show her my belly. I told her I'd LOVE to show her my belly if I could actually leave the house and get my ragged ends trimmed. I've been cutting my hair continually, one hair at a time for the last 5 weeks or so. The thought that I could go and let somebody else cut my hair, do my eyebrows, etc is just the best.

I'm in the home stretch now - it's less than 6 weeks away for a full-term baby, and he's looking more and more like he could make it. If he did the whole 40 lbs, he could weigh as much as 9 lbs. Maybe the fibroid isn't the biggest decider of a C-section here, huh?