Still putting finishing touches on the nursery and will have lots more to wash and put away after the family baby shower on Saturday, but it's fully outfitted now.  I even made up some spray for the reusable flannel baby wipes I still haven't finish making.  I have about ten of them done, another 20 that need to be turned and ironed and finished, and another 20 or so that are just cut out and haven't been pieced together yet.  I keep putting it off, but maybe I'll have some time to sit down at the sewing machine and finish them this weekend.  I have finished several of my other projects for the baby, though.  I made two book slings, a diaper stacker, a valance, a diapering caddy, and a hamper.  I also made a few pairs of booties and I have several more in various stages of completion.  I wanted to latch hook a rug for the nursery, but these things will have to wait till I'm home with  him all day and can find the time while he naps.  

Our pediatrician that we met with a few weeks ago suggested I get a TdaP vaccination to cover the baby for whooping cough which is really bad this year and can be fatal to infants.  I asked my midwife about it and she agreed that I should get it, but that they don't stock vaccines in the office so I would need to go to my primary care physician.  I thought it would be faster and easier to go to the clinic in the local drugstore.  They gave my husband one, no problem, but couldn't go near me with a ten foot pole unless my midwife faxed them a prescription for the vaccine.  Sigh.  I called the midwives and they agreed to fax it, but I couldn't get the fax number to the clinic.  Their national customer support people were extremely rude on the phone, telling me that they don't have fax machines at the clinics (which isn't true at all because the nurse at the clinic told me they accept faxes) and that she couldn't give me their phone number to give to my physician because they don't take direct calls.  So the vial of vaccine that was leftover from my husband getting his injection that was sitting in their fridge with my name on it is going to go to waste.  I called my regular doc and talked to the lady in the lab who ran it past my doc and the nurse midwife just to be double sure that it was okay to give to a lady in her 37th week of pregnancy and they got me in and out in like 5 minutes.  I should have done that first instead of waste a morning on the phone trying to get the clinic sorted out.  I also saw my doc a couple weeks ago to check out my tongue which we had all thought had an oral thrush infection but which turned out to be geographic tongue.  I had tried EVERYTHING including a round of anti-fungal mouthwash prescribed by the midwives and nothing cleared it up, so I was relieved to find out that this geographic tongue is something completely benign and slightly mysterious that no one is really sure what causes it, let alone how to get rid of it.  I'll just have to live with the sore tongue for a few more weeks.  My doc says it might have been set off by the hormonal changes of the pregnancy and that it should clear up after I give birth.  

I've had a crampy feeling and a few contractions over the last few days and loose stools.  I keep trying to talk myself out of thinking that I'll go into labor earlier than expected, but it's really feeling like things are starting to get moving.  I've also had mild nausea.  But now that I've gotten that darned vaccine, I'm hoping to make it two more weeks, since that is the recommended time table before exposure to a newborn.  In any event, I'm trying to get lots of sleep in spite of the million little things I still have on my to do list before the baby gets here, you know just in case I do go into labor I'll have some energy to get me through.  

3 weeks to go

Well, my L&D bag is mostly packed and we spent the day out and about picking up some things for the baby and doing returns from the first baby shower.  Ended up picking up some floating shelves for the nursery, a small speaker dock for the nursery so I can load up one of the MP3 players with baby's music, and a diaper bag since we really needed one and I doubt we'll get one at the shower next weekend.  I've already stocked up the diaper bag with everything I'll need initially and finished packing some of the things I might want at the hospital in another bag.  Tomorrow we'll install the car seats and I'll make an appointment to get them inspected next week.

My in-laws had decided they were taking off on Monday to go up to Niagara Falls for four days.  I'm like, "but what if I go into labor?"  They hadn't thought of that.  LOL.  I know I have three weeks left, but it's really feeling like it could be any day now.  For real.  All day long today I had twinges in my cervix, so there's definitely some changes going on there.  I had my strep B test on Thursday, and the midwife wanted to do a quick check to feel the baby's head from the interior to make sure it was indeed a head and not a squishy tushie.  I gave her the okay and she had commented while performing the check that he was head down and engaged, my cervix was still very posterior but soft and perhaps a bit dilated already.  He dropped down like two weeks ago, so I wouldn't be terribly surprised if I went into labor a bit early.  Perhaps that's just wishful thinking, though.  I've been feeling fairly uncomfortable with terribly hip and pubic bone pain.  The first few steps I take after standing up are excruciating.  And I'm just generally enormous and lumber around like a hippo!

I've been to cloth diapering class and have an in-house consultation coming up, 26 hours of Bradley Method birthing class, breastfeeding class, and infant CPR class; and I've hired one of the most experienced doulas in the area. I feel like we can't possibly do anything more to get ready than we've already done except for performing a really deep clean on the whole house.  I spent some of the night tonight putting finishing touches on the nursery and it's almost ready for baby.  We even set up the video monitor tonight and put in the outlet covers.

Now I just have to get through the shower next weekend and get all fo that put washed and put away and then I can pick up a few last-minute necessities and we'll be READY!

Our birth class:

We met with a very nice lady pediatrician today.  I think we're really going to like that practice.

I still can't walk around normally because apparently I have Pubic Symphysis Dysfunction and it's really kind of bumming me out.  I have so much to get done, and not so much time left to do it in.

I have made good progress in the baby's room, though.  The closet is painted and shelves re-installed.  I've even washed all of the onesies and blankets I got at my shower and have folded and put them all away.  This weekend, I hope to get some things hung up on the walls and install the monitor and smoke detector.  I finally got the curtain I made forever ago put up, and my cousin recovered the old rocking chair my husband got for me at an auction for $2 with about $30 of fabric I picked out.  It's so much softer and it's a bright lime green now.  I love it!  And we scored a glider rocker for the living room at the Goodwill for $25!  My husband loves those.

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.


****

Oh, for the love of Pete!

My work buddy/neighbor who is due a week or so before me got in trouble for
stopping by my desk and chatting. This happened a grand total of three
times for a max of 15 minutes. And the person who made the complaint was my
boss's boss who stops by my cubicle neighbor's desk every day for about 45
minutes and talks about sports and workouts and playing video games. Double
standard much? Apparently, they were uncomfortable with us talking about
"lady stuff". Well, I'd rather not hear about you blowing someone's head
off and seeing the "red rain" in your violent video game, but I just put my
headphones on and ignore the chatter. And it's not like we were standing
there talking about our vaginas. We were discussing glucose testing and
cloth diapers.

In other news, my husband and I went on a bike ride down to the nearby boat
ramp yesterday evening and I kept feeling a little crampy and stopped
peddling a few times to stretch the muscles in my lower belly. Apparently,
the activity had set off my very first noticeable Braxton Hicks contractions
and I didn't really realize it. My back has been killing me for the past
two days in the late afternoons (located higher in the back than my usual
hip pain) and I wonder now if the two things were at all connected. I'll
have to pay attention to that.


****