Swelling

So I'm pre-registered at the hospital. We're signed up for the diaper
service and are pre-paid for 6 weeks of service. We've contracted with a
doula and she's been paid in full. We had our last Bradley Method class on
Tuesday, and our midwife looked over our birth plan and signed off on it
today. The few things remaining on our baby to do list are to finish
setting up the baby's room, install the carseats and get them inspected by
the sheriff, pay for placenta encapsulation, and finish packing a labor and
delivery bag. Oh, and get some more prenatal pics done. A photographer
friend of mine took some after my baby shower the other day and they looked
pretty good, but she wanted to do some more one day. I've also got another
baby shower coming up in four more weeks, a breastfeeding class and a baby
CPR class.

In other news, a lady at work mused that it looked like I was starting to
carry lower. That same day, I started noticing some pretty severe hip and
pubic bone pain. It's really bad today, so I asked about it and the
midwives say it's completely normal and that the baby is probably preparing
to engage in my pelvis (albeit a little early). Also, my fundal height
measured 36cm at 34 weeks today, so it's right on. I've been drinking red
raspberry leaf tea and eating figs and doing anything else I can to make
sure that everything goes smoothly for delivery.

I've had pretty bad swelling since Sunday when I spent a few hours outside
in really bad heat on a riverboat cruise. I didn't drink enough water that
day either, so when I swelled up on Monday, I wasn't too surprised. What
did surprise me is that it persisted. I kept trying to put my feet up and
even iced them, which usually does the trick. When I woke up on Wednesday
with swollen feet AND ankles (which was new since usually I just notice a
bit of puffiness on the tops of my feet, but my ankles are okay) and my
hands were also feeling stiff and swollen, I decided to take some drastic
action. When I got off work, I soaked in a tub of epsom salts with the jets
on for over an hour. That seemed to do the trick. I have also been sucking
down massive amounts of water. I was really worried about the swelling, but
my blood pressure if still fine and I haven't had any protein in my urine,
so it looks like I'm not headed towards pre-eclampsia.


****

Whining

I'm just going to gripe for a bit.

On my way to work, a police cruiser turned in front of me. The uniformed
office behind the wheel was talking on his cell phone without using a hands
free device. Now, it's not illegal in my state if you're over 18 to talk on
the phone while driving without using a hands free device. Texting is
illegal, but not using hand held devices. But I still think the sheriff's
office should be setting a better example.

When I got to work all of the reserved spaces near the building were
occupied and I had to park in the back of the lot. My back is killing me
and it's really hot out when I get to work at 11, so this really ruffled my
feathers, especially since there are a lot of people parked in the reserved
spots who don't have the right tags to be allowed to use them. I e-mailed
our parking attendant and she got with the managers of the departments whose
employees were in violation of our policy. I felt kind of like a whiney
bitch for ratting people out, but this has been happening a lot lately.
People on first shift think these spaces are just spares and park in them,
making me have to hike my pregnant butt in from the back 40 in scalding
heat. It's just annoying.

My kitchen in unusable. Okay, a little background, here. We purchased our
home two years ago and got the first time home-buyer's tax refund which we
used to re-wire the whole house, install a new HVAC system and water heater
and put in new floors. Yay, for economic stimulation. Well, the contractor
we hired was my husband's cousin "Beaver". When they installed the HVAC
system, they ran a long line for the condensation to run out of the house
and they used PVC piping. Last week, during record heat, the condensation
built up in the line and bowed the long, unsupported line, causing
condensation to build up and start running back into the system. Thank God
that no damage was done to the air handler, but water started leaking into
the ceiling of my pantry (the air handler is in the attic) and eventually
saturated the drywall, ran down a wall and pooled in the hallway flooring,
ruining some of the new laminate we'd laid down the year before. Sigh. So
we had to tear down a wall, the ceiling in the pantry (and remove all of the
food that didn't get wet) and rip up the flooring and threshholds in the
hallway. Right now, the kitchen is unusable until we get the pantry put
back together, but at least the instant mold bloom that was created by the
leak has been cleaned up. My husband is very allergic to mold, so that's a
relief.

While the guys were tearing apart the house, I went to get my purple
highlights re-bleached and changed to turquoise. I didn't want to spend a
lot of money since we just hired a doula and paid her in full and we'll be
eating the repair costs for the kitchen, so I decided to go to the local
beauty college to have them done. Sigh...what can I say. I went in at 9:30
and didn't get out until 12:30. My baby shower was at 1 and it takes a half
an hour to drive there. I had to go home and shower (in cold water since
the guys had the electricity to the hot water heater turned off) and change
really fast. I was an hour late and felt like a giant tool and was just so
frustrated that I wanted to cry. My poor friends came to see me and didn't
get to talk to me before they all had to go about their days. And to top it
off, I had to cut out of the salon before the stain had fully set, so my
blue is not going to hold up well. Oh well, I can always purple over it at
home, though separating the dyed parts will be difficult since they "wove"
them in...yikes! And she was really rough with the combing, so
unfortunately, I have a lot of broken strands now. Might be time to start
cutting out my awesome highlights. Oh well.

I still haven't unpacked the car of all the baby loot yet since the house is
in such an uproar until the kitchen gets squared away. It'll have to get
done tonight, though, since we'll need to pick up new flooring tomorrow for
the hallway. Sigh again.

And on top of it all, my husband's company is threatening to close down his
division. He's getting ready to be our sole income earner and he carries
the insurance on us all, so that is a major stressor. I don't think he'd
have too much trouble finding another job (he's already had a couple of
offers, but he declined because the salary wouldn't have been much higher
than his current job and he'd have to start commuting again which he isn't
keen to do after two years of working from home). He's in a high demand and
highly specialized IT sector, so I'm hoping he can get a few interviews and
come up with a good offer and can tell his current company to eat his dust.
I doubt he'd want to try to work from home with me and the baby home all day
to distract him anyway, so he would have had to start going to the office
eventually anyway.

Yesterday my feet were so puffy that I had to elevate and ice them. We had
been out in the heat all day doing a sightseeing cruise on the river that
runs by our house, so I wasn't too surprised that I was swelling.



****

8 weeks to go (give or take)

You can tell that it's getting crowded in there for the baby because he's
not just giving me little cute kicks anymore, he's rocking and rolling!

I'm drinking red raspberry leaf tea for the first time today. It's
recommended to help speed early stages of labor. I don't think I have the
steeping down to a science just yet. I'll have to make some at home tonight
and loose leaves instead of packing them into my infuser. I think that
would work better because the leaves aren't seeming to get soaked in the
infuser.

I can't believe next weekend is the baby shower! I've also got my
photographer friend doing some maternity photos that day, too, since I'll
already be all dressed up. LOL. I really need to re-dye my purple
highlights and get my toes painted. I've been tempted to go to the salon to
get the highlights redone because I just don't feel like messing with it
myself and they look horrible now. They've faded to pink. Yeck! I have
even half considered having them re-bleached and dyed turquoise.

A friend and I went on an epic search for the right dress to wear a few
weeks ago and found a really nice one, but it's bright orange (which is "in"
right now because it's the Pantone color of the year). I figured I'd pair
it with some turquoise accents and I really have been salivating after some
druzy earrings on etsy, but they're too pricey, so I cheaped out and bought
some bezel set faceted turquoise pendants and am going to make a matching
set of earrings and necklace for myself. I was going to check the pawn
shops for a better gold plated chain, though, because the findings I got at
the local craft store aren't long enough and I'm not exactly sure how to
join them. I'm sure it'll work out.


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