A-l-m-o-s-t t-h-e-r-e
August 15, 2003 - 1:57 p.m.
Allergies are kicking my butt today. I can't really see the screen for these blurred eyes! I'm in this cycle of being hungry every minute of the day despite stuffing myself at every oppurtinuty. I was so bad yesterday, with all the sugar I ate, but luckily my blood sugar levels stayed low. Must have been all the excess adrenaline. They are ordering Pizza Hut today at work and all I have is lousy Tuna...hey, it's great protien for the baby! Just too bad it doesn't taste like chocolate.
So, my SIL was asking me when I was going to have the child. I told her any time between September 9th and the 20th. She's trying to plan my neice's birthday party. Her birthday is Sept. 23rd, so I am really throwing a wrench into things. Anyway, that conversation paired with a conversation that Tim had with one of our old friends - got us to thinking about September 11th. And wondering if maybe the baby would be born then? It'sperfectly possible, a few days after the cervix stretching, and whatever else I mgiht try to get her to arrive....anyway, the signifigance is obviously - a bad day for "the world" as our friend put it...but also the day we miscarried just last year. Interesting perspective, isn't it. Some people might not be at all fond of meshing the two memories together, but in my mind I can't help but see it as coming full circle and closing that gap in our lives forever. I haven't fully thought it out, and I don't think I will. Just thought it worth mentioning.
Well today is a big day - lots of errands to run. I'm taking back a few of the items that I got from my showers that I don't need and picking up the things that we do need. I completely forgot about window shades for the back seat of my car (Please, no pooh!) and assorted other accessories. I am going to try my hardest not to spend very much - we're trying to watch our bank account because we are used to having a lot more in there than what we have right now. A couple of weeks of muted spending might help get us back up there - just in time for maternity leave. I'm seriously trying to stock up on different styles and sizes of diapers so we won't be having to spend that money later when we aren't making it. I realize I will still be paid while I am on leave - four weeks at full pay and 5 weeks at 60%. So it's not going to be bleak for us....but Tim and I are used to spending half of what we make on stuff that we want, paying bills with a quarter and saving the rest. It's definitely going to have to change.
I can't tell you how weird it is to walk up to my car and see that car seat sitting in the back. Every single time, a little "awww" escapes me...I can't believe one day, very soon, a squirmy little button is going to be sitting in that seat.
No, I did not have the baby today....
August 14, 2003 - 4:29 p.m.
I'm a little more comfortable today, but I am recovering from a major blunder:
I accidentally emailed my birth announcement to about 100 people today!!
It's hard to say how it happened. I had designed this cute little template with a purple background and an animation of a baby with a rattle (some of you know this because you got it!) and it had some fakey information in there. I was trying to save all the emails into a distribution list - because in case you didn't know this, Hotmail limits how many email addresses you have in the To: field because of Spammers. So I had to create two separate lists to fit in my 100 emails. So I got everything ready for my mom or MIL to send for us while we are in the hospital - and instead of clicking "Save Draft" I clicked "Send". Then I clicked cancelcancelcancelSTOP but it didn't work - so about 3/4 of the people got the email. As soon as I knew I sent it, I hit compose and typed "False Alarm! I was just testing out my mass email distribution list," in the subject line and sent it out to the same people. Then MSN gives me this error telling me that I had already sent the max amount of emails in a 24 hour period and I needed to upgrade (read:pay) to send any more. WHAT??? I can only send 1 email a day? Whatever - so I sent the apology letter from my work email address.
This was so bad - I mean the announcement went to my boss, Tim's boss, all our friends and relatives and aquaintences - practically everyone we know with email. About 1/3 of those people FREAKED OUT. None more than me - I mean, how embarrassing. I was worried about DH's reaction, but he just laughed about it. I guess what I was most mad about was that the name was on there. I didn't want everyone to think we've completely decided on that name - because we really need to see her first. She might turn out to be a Keegan. Who knows? All in all it will blow over - but it just figured and it's all Hotmail's fault.
At least I found out who on my list had valid emails or not. A lot of the emails bounced back - I think some of them were typed in wrong and some just plain didn't work.
Eh - this caused me to have M&M's AND a chocolate chip cookie today. Darn it!!
All of a sudden not feeling well
August 13, 2003 - 4:40 p.m.
I'm feeling crampy, not good, heartburny, and full of baby. Seriously the weirdest feeling. You know how when you eat too much, and you feel so full - but full of food? And you just can't wait until your stomach digests a little bit so you can have some relief?
That's how I feel but it's all baby in there, and she won't move - not like there is any place to go. It feels every day like there is less and less fluid and more and more baby.
I think I am having some of that 3rd trimester exhaustion kicking in.
Only a few more weeks - this has to end, right?
Class, Car Seat & Shopping
August 13, 2003 - 12:22 p.m.
We had our second child care class last night. I swear these just aren't as cool as the child birth classes. I guess because, even though I feel it is great information to have, I feel more comfortable learning these things with my real baby than with my little plastic Latino baby (who's still to pretty to be a boy). The best part came at the end of the class when we got to practice strapping the kid into the car seat. Tim and I were almost fighting over the car seat, one of us had the plastic baby by the arm while the other was swinging the car seat over and looking at the manual. I had tightened the straps down as far as they would go (back when I got the seat, a year ago) and forgotten where the release was. We had a few frustrating minutes but then we cooperatively got the little guy strapped in. We were one of the only couples that didn't need adjustments when the instructor came around to check.
We had installed the base in my car after dinner and just before class. It wasn't half as hard as I assumed it would be, but it sure did shrink my size of my car. I don't know if a convertible would fit in my backseat rear-facing. This one touches both of the front seats - I guess we do sit a little far back but that has to do with my air-bag phobia! So I am now driving around with a blue car seat in my backseat. Funny, it makes it so much more real. We're going to have it inspected after the baby is born. That way they can see how the baby fits in the seat, and make any necessary adjustments.
Tim thinks we should have gotten the car seat with the ergonomic M shaped handle. Bah to that. I love our car seat, our whole travel system.
So on the to-do list, I have one more load of baby clothes to do, curtains to make and hang, wall hangings to hang, some labor aids to make/buy, some meals to freeze. Not bad.
This Friday I am also returning/exchanging some items that I got from my shower and picking up last minute stuff...
I'm looking for a birth ball, safety gates, monitor, some more nursing pads and creams, a changing pad and a bunch of baby meds to stock up for those late night teething attacks or fevers or what not.
I still have a ton of diaper, wipes and formula coupons that I am going to use - and keep the receipts just in case. Can't let something like that go to waste....
My Appointment
August 12, 2003 - 2:19 p.m.
Had an OB appt this morning, it was relatively uneventful. Baby's head is down but her body is diagonal - weird position and uncomfortable for mom! Doc says if she flips again to call.
Otherwise I haven't gained any weight in the last two weeks (could have fooled me) and she's measuring normal size so far. That's good considering I was told to watch my weight gain last time!
Doc thinks my sugar levels are doing great, even with the high ones, I had quite a few this week. She told me that I can eat one piece of pizza with the crust and then eat the topping off the rest of the pizza if I want.
As long as my levels are in control like they have been, I can labor at home as long as I like (since I am planning no pain meds). She said whenever we come in to the hospital will be fine. Actually, the longer we stay away from the hospital, the less likely to have any medical interventions. At first she was concerned that we would have to have continuous monitoring throughout labor, but now it looks like I can do what I want! YAY!
She said she and the hospital will do whatever they can to help with the no meds - but that sometimes the pain gets to a point where it actually stops labor and at that point they will inject synthetic morphine to get it going again - or an epidural but not within 4 hours of delivery so it doesn't affect the baby's heart rate. So I guess we'll just have to see how it goes! Sounds like an open mind is the best way to go about it.
She also said that the first membrane stripping (September 9th at 4pm) probably won't start labor but it will prevent an overdue baby. She'll do it until it works - she really doesn't want me to be induced as stress raises blood sugar levels...but just not to count on going in to labor the first time. Not like I'm not going to try. All my coaxing and persuading worked to get Marlee in the right position, so it might work to get her OUT! Still, I 'm guess ing we have 4 to 5 weeks left.
That's about it, nothing much new - she kept saying "This is stuff KC can do for you during labor," I finally had to stop her and say, "KC is my brother-in-law?" He must be in my file as an emergency contact. It was funny, and she felt really bad and then called Tim my wife. I think she's on drugs. LOL.
The next couple appts will be the same, probably have my Group B Strep swab September 2nd. She said she'd look over my birth plan at the next visit.
When you start out the day with no shoes that fit....
August 11, 2003 - 11:10 a.m.
This weekend was both the big camping trip and the big shower. The camping trip was a blast, though if I never see sand again it will be too soon and if anyone else calls me a "trooper" for being 8.5 months pregnant and camping, I will barf. Things went smoothly though and we'll most likely do it again next year. We bought a full-size air mattress and blew it up. It was like sleeping in one of those kiddy-jumping tent things, it was so awful that we through it out of the tent in the middle of the night on the second night. I have to flip over every half hour or so because my hips ache so badly, and every time I would attempt to do so, it would bounce Tim or myself off. Now our shoulders and hips feel bruised from sleeping on the hard sand floor. The last straw for the air mattress came when TIm decided to sleep on the floor next to it, and air started seeping out. My hips and butt were lower than any part of my body and, just like I had dreaded, the baby flipped over. I realize that she has some time before she needs to be head-down but it really ticked me off that because of the stupid air mattress, now she's in the wrong position. Her little head is right under my ribs. And while I don;t have the heartburn problem that I have when she's head-down, I am worried that she won't flip back over on her own. My hospital doesn't do breech births, and with a high C-section rate....I doubt they attempt many internal versions. I guess I just have to try to coax her down myself.
The shower on Saturday was nice as well. It was a sugar/carb fest, so all I got to eat was some turkey and ham with cheese (and one silver dollar bun). There were sweets galore but none of them even seemed temptimg to me. We got a ton of stuff....not much that we registered for, other than the swing and ear thermometer. Tons of clothes, lots of handmade blankets. We got some good toys, too. A vaporizer, a grooming set, baby bath tubs (both the inflatable quacky duck kind and the little plastic kind), the booseter seat, tons of baby toiletries...we have enough baby bath and lotion and powders to last 10 years. We didn't get a lot of practical stuff, and we didn't get any gift cards.
I still need to purchase the monitor, the safety gates, a hamper, a changing table pad, a sterilizer and some medicines - tylenol and motrin and gas drops and the like.
I spent all night doing sandy laundry and baby laundry. I will spend all night tonight doing the same.
I can't believe she could be here in 4-6 weeks.....I have so much to do in the next couple of weeks. I want to rent a steam cleaner and do all of our carpets and couches, most of all. We still have to clean out the storage area, something we said we were going to do last week...
I have an OB appointment tomorrow at 8am. I don't have that many questions for the doc this time, maybe she could help me figure out more about baby's position and some ways to get her back down.
We also have our 2nd childcare class tomorrow. This is the one where we have to bring in our car seats. So tonight I will be reading through the manual and trying to figure out how to get this freaking thing in there...I am sure the first time is the hardest. I have to put both bases in, one in our car and the other in the truck. We'll stop by the fire station tomorrow after dinner to get the one in the car inspected...don't know when we will get around to doing it in the truck.
So other than picking up the rest of the baby items, some last minute nesting/cleaning at home, installing the car seats and waiting for baby to turn - I think the clock is finally starting to wind down.