Two Weeks Tops

This being day one of week 40 I figure that at most I only have two weeks to wait. I can't see going beyond 41 weeks. I don't think they'll let you do that anyway. I had my massage on Friday afternoon and was that ever wonderful. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner it was really so nice.

I really have no update. Nothing much has changed. I haven't had any contractions and am still feeling good. I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year!

Fabulous Friday

Well evidently baby is still not ready to make an appearance. Nothing new in spite of the fact that I walked to and from getting lunch all the way to 31st Street AND went to yoga last night. I have a massage later this afternoon so let's see what she can do. Then again why would you even want to leave? I've been treating this body better than ever for crying out loud.

Teenie to the Left of Me

Cricket to the right...

Here I am... stuck in the middle with you

For You: A Non Update

Well, no change since last week. She did ask if I was considering being induced if nothing happens between now and my next appointment at 39 weeks. But I told her that I would wait it out as much as it pains me to say that I think it's the best course of action. She estimates that the baby weighs somewhere between 6.5 and 7 pounds right now so if I go to my due date she figures something like 7.5 or 8 pounds. I can live with that. So back to waiting...

On a more exciting note, I found a rug. The colors aren't exactly right but I brought it home to see. Do you think it works?

Stay Tuned

My next appointment is tomorrow at 11:15 so I should have an update shortly thereafter. Although I won't come straight back I plan to swing by the lactation station again before I head home.

We had our last class tonight which included a tour of L & D, the postpartum unit, and the nursery. There were only three babies in the nursery, I don't think that many people send their babies there but were they ever cute and tiny. Happily the birthing and postpartum rooms are as nice as promised and we were told that they have wi-fi in the postpartum unit so I'll be able to post right away. Even do some video with my webcam... did I mention that this computer is awesome?

Christmas Recap

Unfortunately, in this picture Ben's not yet clad in his new pj's and slippers but I thought that it pretty much sums up why it was so darn hard to buy him the toy in the first place. Now he's carrying it around looking for things to cut.

Santa? Is That You?

Francis peeks down the stairs at the tree and fantasizes about reindeer meat.

A New Year's Baby, Maybe?

So no Christmas baby. I'm still waiting patiently. I have to keep reminding myself of the countless things I still have to get ready. Ben finally put the carseat in on Saturday so that's good to go and as of tonight I've almost finished packing my bag for the hospital. I'm sure there are things I need to wash and/or sterilize but my mind is like a sieve. I'm lucky if I can remember the day of the week these days. I have the crib all set up the bassinet is not really ready so I should really get to that. Maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow I want to post pics of Ben opening his gifts last night too. Maybe typing it here will help to jog my memory tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday... it's noses to the grindstone again tomorrow.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

Ben FINALLY got the Christmas tree decorations out from the basement. But only after I threatened to just take the damn tree down since by the time he got me the decoration Christmas would most likely be over.

What's weird is that almost none of the ornaments requiring hooks had any. I must have had some sort of strange plan last year when I took them all down to not have saved any of the hooks. Nonetheless I am pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

So after my appointment yesterday, I went and bought this breast pump.

Mostly because the picture on the box promises that with this model I'll feel as confident and professional as this lady. I can't wait!

Progess

We're making progress. The doctor says I'm now 2-3 cm dilated! She laughed and said well we may be having a Christmas baby after all. :) Then she followed that up again quickly with a but maybe not.

Just Checking In

My appointment is at 1 and then I plan to go to the "lactation station" to see if I can spend any of my flex benefits money on nursing bras and a pump and the like. I'm having to get more and more creative with how to spend that money every day. Worse case scenario I think I'll go and stock up on bandaids at CVS ;). After the lactation station I'm headed to the mall, then across the street to Barnes and Noble and lastly Target to finish up on shopping. I don't anticipate being home soon after my appointment but I'll update my blog when I do get home.

You Be the Judge

This is what I look like today...

For the Record

Blogger is a piece of crap! I haven't been able to upload pictures since yesterday!!

And Only 17 More to Go

Well still no baby and I'm being ever so patient. I don't even have anything new and exciting to report except that there are only 17 days left until my due date. Until then, I keep walking and I'm planning on going to yoga tomorrow.

I snapped these pics a couple of days ago... I checked the news right away to see if hell had in fact frozen over.

Three Down One To Go

Well we have watched our third video, practiced our breathing again, and have heard the lecture on breastfeeding. Next week... finally... finally we get our tour of labor and delivery and most importantly get to see the babies in the nursery.

I am now supremely uncomfortable but looking forward to seeing what my doc has to say on Friday since I've now lost my m.p. :)

My Final Sun Salutation

So, since my next yoga class would fall on Christmas and the one after that on New Years, I'm thinking that last night was my last hurrah. I'm fine with that though, because after all of these months I was finally able to get my heels down for downward facing dog. Now the problem is how to stay loose and limber over the next three weeks? I supposed I could practice at home but that doesn't sound like much fun at all without the peer pressure to shame you into completing the exercises.

So as for an update, I'm still walking and trying to finish Christmas shopping. I'm thinking that thank you cards will get finished but at the expense of Christmas cards. People will just have to manage without them. I'm still feeling good and I'll spare you the gory details but I will say that I have a lot of cramping. No contractions though. In fact I haven't had any braxton hicks contractions at all... ever. I did remember that we have jets in our tub and managed to have a soak last night. I have no idea why I haven't been doing that all along. It was great.

No more time to waste typing there are many more hours to be spent this evening freaking out over how it's already December 18th! Holy crap!

My Almost 37 Week Appointment

So I'm back from my appointment this morning. We've got some moving and shaking going on down there. The baby 's head is down and I'm 1 cm dilated and ninety percent effaced. So... even though she said that doesn't help predict when the baby will come at all... you can probably start placing bets. :)

Now, who was it that looked at the picture and said nothing was going on yet? Hrmph!

Finally Finished

So now that I'm finally done and have nothing to procrastinate from I have nothing to post. I'm really looking forward to my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. Hopefully it's early enough that she'll not have to cancel on me again.Baby has decided that one side is softer and cushier than the other... there's not a whole lot of room left in there to move around but somehow baby makes do.

Yesterday I brought Cricket's bed upstairs because she likes to sleep behind my desk.... it didn't work out the way we planned..

I like to call this one.. um.. something about this just isn't right.

Come on Six O'clock!

Oh how I long to be done... I don't even care anymore!

Paddy Loves Baby and Baby Loves Paddy

Paddy likes to bond with the baby. If you watch closely you can see my belly move under his paw.

Thank You Dr. Oetker!

So I'm picking up a few things at Giant today and what do I spot in the baking aisle but lemon meringue pie mix. Now, I know I claim to be a food purist and all but there's plenty of room in my life for the comfort foods of my youth including kraft dinner and Shirriff lemon meringue pie. The box is a different color and the label says Dr. Oetker but I think it's funny that it advertises from the makers of Shirriff as if that means anything to people that shop at Giant. Dr. Oetker is that same kind Dr. that brings me vanilla sugar for dusting my vanille kepferls. :)

So like I love this neighborhood and I loooove that we have two groceries and a market to choose from but that makes it really hard to choose where to shop. I went to Giant today because I was at the Barnes and Noble studying and was already up that way. I can't decide which one I like better. On one hand, Giant has the pie mix, the kind of cream cheese and yogurt that I like among other things. On the other hand, Safeway's produce is better and they have nestle mini morsels. Giant has this new line of products and the packaging is so nice that it made me want to eat the spaghetti sauce right there in the aisle.
I also learned that there is a Chipotle across from the bookstore the other day and today I saw that they're putting in a Starbucks next to that. That makes me a little worried since Donna's was the only place to get coffee before but I guess I'm ok with it since the starbucks in the barnes and noble totally sucks and donnas isn't really a place where you can go and sit and study. I'd rather stick with Donna's just for lunch/dinner. Well maybe just dinner and chipotle for lunch.

Picture Sunday

Good news, I found the batteries while I was looking for the cordless phone! Here are my latest pics. I have to say a Boppy makes for one boring picture.
Here's me at 36 Weeks. I think it looks about the same as it did two weeks ago.Yesterday a package came in the mail... now we're definetely putting up the tree! Thanks for thinking of us Nad.

Here's the Bop with it's new slipcover... zzzz....

Boppy Time

Well I went and picked up the boppy. It wasn't in great shape but I tossed it in the wash and then in the dryer with some tennis balls and it looks pretty good now. While I was at target picking up batteries for my camera I also bought a new slipcover. I would take a picture except now I can't find the batteries that I bought... story of my life. You'll just have to use your imagination.

I went to yoga this afternoon and realized that I can probably only squeeze in one more class next week. The week after that is a holiday and I guess I could conceivably go the week following but I'm thinking probably not.

I can't wait for exams to be over this week so I can finally catch up on some laundry. My worst.. ok not my worst nightmare, but I don't want to go into labor already behind in the game.

I'm 9 Months Pregnant!

It happened so fast. I can hardly believe it and I can hardly wait another second to meet our baby. Everyone has a suggestion for how to first encourage baby to arrive and then later to evict if need be.

Tomorrow I pick up my Boppy, very cool and I think I'll go to Target too. I have to save our potted palm from an untimely death by buying the cats some of that cat grass. While I'm there assuming that I remember, I will pick up batteries for my camera and take some pics.

Only One More To Go

This makes me very happy. Of course my last exam is a bad ass closed book kind of a thing but I have a few days in between to prepare so I think it will be ok. Basically I sat down and wrote everything I know about civil commitment, the insanity defense, and trial strategy and all the possible constitutional issues that could arise in that regard. I just wrote and wrote and wrote until I couldn't write anymore. I mean what else to do, he already admitted that his grading scheme for the whole made up class is completely arbitrary.

Other than that, not much going on. I'll probably take it easy tonight seeing as it's already after 9:00.

Arrghh! Why?!

Why?? Why? All I wanted was to watch the office is that too much to ask?

Thursday Never Looking Back

So I'm waiting ever so patiently for the day of my appointment only to get a call saying that the doctor has been called into a "procedure" and that I'll have to be rescheduled. The next available appointment isn't until next Friday! So much for two week appointments. So I complained about it to anyone who would listen. My sister aptly pointed out that I was getting all bent out of shape over a 10 minute appointment where the doctor would weigh me and take my bp which is true... but I like hearing the heart beat and now I have to wait more than a week for another chance! The good news is everything seems fine and baby is as squirmy as ever. So it's like 7:45 now and I've finally come to grips with the missed appointment. I studied for a while at Barnes and Noble and got a lot more done than I would have at home. Now to push through the rest of the material.

Aside from getting a lot accomplished, being out made me feel a little more Christmassy so I think we will put the tree up which is something that I had vetoed as recently as last week. I figured out what to get Ben for Christmas. I've given up on getting him things that he truly finds exciting and surprising cause they're just to dang expensive (that's right, you're not getting a plasma screen tv) it's impossible to keep up. So acknowledging my limitations I have come up with a modest themed gift with a couple of different components.

Let's see my light at the end of the tunnel for tonight: the office! I swear if it's a repeat someone at NBC is going to get an earful! I broke down and ordered chinese for dinner. We've been pretty good though well I have anyway with the exception of coffee. I'll cook again tomorrow, no that's a lie cause my exam is from 6-9 have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? People will be asleep in the class. I guess it's technically an evening class but do you really have an exam from 6-9 for a class that's usually from 4:45 til 6:00?? Good grief.

Tuesday, Wednesday Heart Attack

So I read back through my post from yesterday and realize that it's just chock fulla mistakes. First of all as much as I'm looking forward to it, my appointment is tomorrow, not Monday. I have no idea where I came up with that. Well ok, that's the only mistake I can remember but there were more I'm sure of it. I guess I should be glad that I made it through until the last four and a half weeks before my brain got totally fried.

I called the hospital today because I couldn't remember if I had pre-registered like I was supposed to or not. The lady there was like well you could have that baby any day now you should be registered already. I was like.. oh, uh, ok. So I go make my breakfast and look at the milk only to see that it expires long after my due date. That happened once before but it was half and half and that stuff never goes bad so I didn't think too much of it. I guess it's starting to hit me how close we are to the end.

Oh, and of course as I suspected Discovery Health showed the third trimester installment of Pregnancy for Dummies today! What a rip! I should demand my money back. Maybe I'll start my own childbirth class make good use of the screen Ben put in the basement. My light at the end of the tunnel for tonight: I don't have an exam tomorrow. It's not much, but I'll take it.

Lastly, I'm typing and wondering what's keeping my ankles warm so I reach around and take a picture.

I Survived Tuesday

One down, two to go. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. I still could have stood to be a little more prepared but I'm generally satisfied with how the exam went.

On the other hand, I am less than satisfied with our childbirth class. I am more nervous now than I was before going. The crazy l & d nurse that teaches the class "especially"for the quasi practice group kept going on and on about how much they love pitocin at that hospital. Then she asked how many people were planning to get epidurals and clearly everyone who had been thinking about not getting it was now terrified and too afraid of her to say anything. Basically, I could have learned everything she went over tonight with the exception of how much GBMC loves pitocin from a video... oh that's right, because we watched a video. Seriously, I paid to watch pregnancy for dummies, which incidentally is showing the part about the second trimester on DHC tonight. Interestingly, the couple that moved into the house across the street where the people that referred us to our doctor used to live are also in the class. She's due in February apparently, I'm not really sure how I missed that but Ben knew. So there are sure to be enough babies on this block to have our own whatchamacallit... playgroup or whatever.

At any rate, I'm still looking forward to my appointment on Monday and meanwhile will try not to totally fall apart. I'm so crazy tired.

This Will Surely Kill Me

I just keep telling myself what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I bet I'll look back at this time after finals are over and laugh and laugh.

Craigslist Loot

I knew it would make me feel better! I'm so very happy with my finds and it's all in perfect condition from a normal person's house. I feel better now because ultimately I would have gone out and bought the tummy time mat and in the end probably never have used it (Murphy's Law right?). Now I can rest easy and all I need to get my hands on is a nursing pillow. People say it goes either way... either you love it or you hate it. They're much less expensive thant he gym mats though.

Sunday, So What?

So today isn't turning out to be what I hoped it would. It's turning into a high anxiety type of a day and I wasn't expecting that. I shouldn't have said anything bad about the internet last night... I think it heard me. What do I mean by that? First of all I'm experiencing a serious email drought. Then I found something on Craigslist that I wanted and I responded to the post it took the lady like 12 hours to get back to me (I guess I can't really hold that against the internet). But there is just generally nothing to distract me from exams online. How did exams get here so fast?? I'm not at all prepared and why why does evidence have to be first and why why does it have to be closed book? Even though I'm ok with the material I still feel woefully under-prepared.

Then I freaked out about eating salami cause apparently you're not supposed to unless it's heated through... but I heated it through. So why am I freaking out you ask? I don't know! But the salami tastes so good. Maybe it's because I woke up on my back. You're not supposed to do that either. There are just a lot of things that you're not supposed to do. I don't know how I'm ever going to make it to my next appointment on Thursday. It's really hard not to freak out about the baby.

So my schedule for next week goes something like Monday: work, Tuesday: evidence exam, childbirth prep class, Wednesday: work, Thursday: Doctor's appointment, Friday: law and psychiatry exam. Sweet right? Can I run away now?

Maybe picking up my Craigslist loot will motivate me to carry on.

What IS This?

Ok so seriously, what is this newborn, more potent than a wipe poop I've started hearing about? I thought baby poops were supposed to be cute. More importantly, why doesn't anybody tell you about these things and what did people do before the internet? Actually, they probably worried less.

Elmo TMX Elmo

This is hilarious, I'd only heard about it but this is too much!

sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!

All the books you can carry away in a box or bag for $2. Sigh.. I love the library. Not only did I learn this but also got myself a copy of A Girl Called Eddy's self-titled album... excellent and the next disc in season 3 of homicide... also excellent not to mention a copy of the highly acclaimed the Happiest Baby on the Block video. I'll check it out and let you know.

I made Ben take me to McDonalds. I think it's the first time I've ever really wanted something but I had to have a Big Mac and you know he didn't fight me on it. Luckily we stopped to eat because after like the second store I was ready to go home. I used to be such a good shopper!

For the Non-Believers

Caffeine in Beverages and Chocolate¹⁰

ITEM MILLIGRAMS OF CAFFEINE AVERAGE RANGE COFFEE (8-oz. cup) Brewed, drip method Brewed, percolator Instant 184 128 104 96-288 64-272 48-192 TEA (8-oz. cup) Brewed, major U.S. brands Brewed, imported brands Instant Iced (12-oz. Glass) 64 96 48 70 33-144 40-176 40-80 67-76 Caffeinated soft drinks (12 oz.) 36 30-60 Hot cocoa (12 oz.) 6.4 3.2-32 Chocolate milk beverage (8 oz.) 5 2-7 Milk chocolate (1 oz.) 6 1-15 Dark chocolate, semi-sweet (1 oz.) 20 5-35 Baker's chocolate (1 oz.) 26 26 Chocolate-flavored syrup (1 oz.) 4 4

Source: U.S. FDA and National Soft Drink Association

A pregnant woman should not consume ANY caffeine: Experts and studies have stated that "moderate" levels of caffeine have not been found to have a negative effect on pregnancy. The definition of "moderate" varies anywhere from 150 mg - 300 mg a day.

So considering that two cups of coffee a day is considered safe I think that half a pepsi should be manageable. :-p