Still here, still pregnant (Weeks 36 and 37)

The big news is I've/we've made it to full-term, not that there was any reason to worry that I/we wouldn't.  She could be born any time now(!) and be ready to go and figure out what those lungs are for.

I don't have any pictures handy, but I'll post some when I do.  Dick and Wendy were here over Father's Day weekend, which was great.  Wendy got to feel Jane wiggling around, we shared some good meals, and they got to see our new place, dog, and life before everything gets completely turned around.  It was a nice visit and we're looking forward to having them back to meet Jane in the flesh.  Or out of the flesh, I guess.

I've had a few noticeable changes in how I've been feeling, which the midwife assured me was due to lower levels of progesterone, signaling the upcoming end of pregnancy.  Nothing unmanageable, occasional chills and much less stamina.  I am still grateful to be having such an easy pregnancy.  I'm hopeful that Jane's chill-ness will continue on into her life at home with us.

I got some bad news at work last week.  My position was created because the office manager needed help, but the owners now agree that I don't need 30 hours a week to get it done.  Unfortunately for us, this means I'll be cut down to twenty hours after I come back from maternity leave and will be losing our insurance.  Twenty hours is not enough for us to live on, but it is something that I will have until I find something else.  We can get on Andy's insurance in August or September, so the timing will work out there as well.  It's not ideal but it's the best of a bad situation.  I have started looking around for other positions and have compiled a few possibilities.  As everyone keeps assuring me, it will work out.  I was not planning on leaving this job before we finished our time here in Mass, but you just can't plan these things out with certainty.

Andy and I practiced cloth-diapering on our Curious George doll the other night.  The snaps are a new thing for me, but we will get used to them in no time.  When our friends' baby Calvin was born, he didn't fit into the cloth diapers they had for several months, so I'll be curious to see whether they fit Jane initially or not.  They're supposed to be able to fit a newborn.  She feels huge to me when she's kicking my ribs, but I know she's going to seem tiny when I meet her, like it was impossible for her to have been imparting that much force.

This week has been and continues to be quite busy.  It's funny to have so much on our calendars, because each day I look at what there is to do, and I think to myself, "Am I actually going to be doing those things?"  Hard to tell at this point.  Tuesday and Wednesday I worked 8:15-5 (instead of my normal 2:15) because the office manager was out, today I volunteer after work and then we have our final birthing class, and tomorrow we have appointments both in the morning (midwife) and afternoon (hospital intake and carseat check).  Then a BBQ on Saturday and a Movement for Birth class on Sunday.  Busy!

Andy, Brisco and I went to a drive-in last week, which was fun.  I, unsurprisingly, fell asleep, but it was still a nice time.  We won't be able to stay out until 2 am(!!!) again for a long time, not that I'd probably want to.  There are a few pictures from that night that I'll get around to at some point.

That's enough for now, I suppose.  :)

Childhood Dream Fulfilled -- 35 Weeks

First, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, WHITNEY!  I hope you had a great day.  :)  I was thinking about you, and then, yeah, you know... I probably lost my train of thought and then wondered why I was putting my cell phone in the freezer.  You'll always be my Caesar Sister!

Anyway, ever since I was young and watched reruns of the Kids in the Hall on CBC, I was taken with the image of a pregnant woman running around in a bikini in the intro.  Well, that, and everything else about the show, but that could be an entire blog unto itself.

Cross THAT off my bucket list!  (Sarah, if you're reading this, can you believe my Bora Boras have held up this long?!)

 Yesterday Mark and Pam invited us to join them for a hike and a swim in their pool.  We skipped the hike because I don't have that much energy anymore (and can't be far away from bathrooms), but we did join them for some pool time and burgers.  And yes, I had a ton of sunscreen on.

 For once we actually had someone else around that could take pictures of the two of us!  Look how tall I look!

 Our next door neighbor wanted to paint her door and thought it'd look weird to just have one painted (side-by-side townhouses) so we got a lavender door as well.  I like it!

Last but not least, we made English muffins for the first time this weekend.  I was not overly impressed.  They were good, but maybe not up to the good: amount of work ratio.  Maybe we just needed a more amazing topping.  They also took a lot longer than expected.  I had to have two pre-breakfasts while they were cooking.

We hit quite a few garage sales on Saturday and got some good stuff, as well as a bouncer from the free store at the Survival Center, and the glider arrived too.  Jane's room is filling up.  Good thing she won't be in there right away!

34 Weeks

We had a couple of very hot days last week.  We're trying to figure out what works best to keep our apartment cool.  It seems like keeping the downstairs closed is the best bet.  My hair got curly in the humidity.  That, and I haven't had a haircut since Cat visited in January.

 I'm definitely rotating through a set number of outfits.  I'm wearing that coral-colored shirt again today.

Since our CSA ran out a few weeks ago, we've been having a harder time planning meals.  When we pick up veggies each week, we would at least have a jumping off point for meal-planning.  After much debate, we finally decided to renew our membership, even with knowing that cooking will become more of a challenge after Jane's arrival.  If we have the produce available, it puts us in a much better position than not having it.  That being said, we had a recipe for a pasta pot with tomatoes, greens, onions, and feta planned for last night.

But I wanted blueberry pancakes.

 A plethora of cast iron!  When I suggested pancakes to Andy, he was on board immediately.  Not because brinner is amazing, but because, as he put it, "You haven't had that many cravings, and I feel bad about it."  Not going to argue.

 Brisco the wonder dog, awaiting dinner of his own.  Or at least waiting for someone to drop something.

 We got two big-deal items this week: a changing table/dresser, and the carseat/stroller.  The changing table is apparently very heavy (I wasn't allowed to help move it), but luckily our neighbor helped get it out of the car and into Jane's room.  Starting to stock it up!

 My dad and Karen sent us the carseat/stroller.  Now that the dresser has been picked up (yay Craigslist finds!) we can put the carseat and base in the car to live there from here on out.  George was the test subject.  Dino-hat courtesy of Uncle Keith!

 Changing table and Brisco in his favorite room

 Filling the dresser with stuff!  If you know Zingerman's, you might recognize a smiling pig on a bib in the middle drawer there.  And the Michigan pennant that we randomly found on the ground in Amherst last summer.  Of course.

I did prenatal yoga yesterday and realized how much my muscles have changed in the last eight months.  It was much harder than I knew it to actually be (if that makes sense).  It's still kind of a foreign idea for me that there are things I can't do that I used to do relatively recently.  All in all, pregnancy is a pretty fast journey, so I guess my mind hasn't yet caught up with the reality of this giant protrusion here.  Andy's doing a great job of keeping me/us safe and well-rested.  I'm still trying to walk the dog as I'm able and keep the house in decent order.

And, equally importantly, we now have nineteen burritos in the freezer for post-baby.  And six pizzas, and several dozen muffins, a frittata, some chicken...

32, 33, and He-Man!

I forgot to take pictures last week.  Last Saturday Andy left to be a sailor for a few days and took my internet connecting-abilities with him.  We had rainy weather in Massachusetts, and high winds and torrential rain out at sea, so I'm told.  There was also a "take cover" alert for Montague the evening Andy got back, so we elected to skip our last childbirth ed. class.  We sat in the hallway, took the laptop, and listened to some serious rain fall quickly.  We didn't see any of the golf-ball sized hail that was not too far away.

Anyway, some pictures:

 Me in a maternity shirt that I've been pictured in before, but it's fitting a little differently now.

We spent most of the day yesterday running some errands for Jane's arrival.  We got a gift certificate to a store in Northampton from the people at my work, and we spent most of that.  We got a selection of cloth diapers, a crib sheet, some pacifiers, a sun hat, and probably some other stuff.  Today we've been cleaning up the house, which is something at which I've been increasingly failing.  My energy level is decreasing each day and I've even been having some nausea in the afternoons lately.  Overall these aren't terrible things, but it means that when I do have a good day with higher energy, most of that goes to undoing all the laziness/unkemptness of the previous days.

But the fun part was working on Jane's room!  Why yes, that is a stool on top of a chair, why do you ask?

 I think we'll be getting a glider rocker instead of the wooden chair that's there.  And I suppose the stool will find a new home.  You can see above the crib some of the butterfly decals that were part of the gift set that included the tree.

 Here you can see (on the far left) the growth chart that was a shower gift.  We also put up this wall hanging, which has what I call "conjoined dinosaurs" on it.

Wondering about the He-Man in the title?  Of course you were.  Two weeks ago I noticed a mole that had changed dramatically.  I know pregnancy is supposed to bring skin changes, but every website I consulted (that's where I should be getting medical advice, right?) said "If you find something that concerns you, consult your doctor."  So despite being unimpressed with my primary care doctor (this was my first visit), and despite the rather gruff manner of the dermatologist, when he suggested we lop this thing off, that's what happened.  He told me it was a hemangioma, and he said it in such a way that suggested that we all know exactly what a hemangioma is.  It's a benign tumor that gets bigger because it fills with clotted blood.  They are also, interestingly, mostly found in children under ten and will go away on their own in most cases.  Either way, mine is gone, and we got the news that it's nothing to worry about.

Tonight we're making chicken shawarma with homemade pita.  Just sayin'.  I have plans in the works for a rhubarb pie tomorrow.  We've been doing a pretty good job stocking up our new chest freezer to help us through the too-tired-to-cook stage that will last the next eighteen years.  But the pie is just because I wanted it.  :)

First visit to the new practice

But first, an irrelevant prelude:

I had my first appointment at the new practice this morning, let's call it PW for short.  It did make me an hour  late for work, but Andy and I both really liked it there.

I think Jane has hiccups right now.

Anyway, it was just another basic appointment.  My belly's measuring where it should be, her heartbeat sounds good, and my blood pressure is nice and low.  The midwife we met with was very nice, though pregnant herself and said she didn't expect to see us again this time around as she'll be taking leave soon.  She emphasized to always call if there's something concerning me (and I've already done that once, even before I was officially a patient there!) so that's good to hear.

We didn't have a lot of questions this time.  It seems like some weeks I have a list of eight things and other times I've got nothing.  But either way, I didn't feel like she was rushing to get us out or anything.

On our drive back, I said, "Know what's weird?  Sometime soon we'll be coming down this road driving our baby home for the first time."  Too bad the road's so darn bumpy.

Andy leaves tomorrow for a few days out on a boat, science-ing it up.  He'll have his computer so I probably won't be able to upload any pictures until Wednesday or Thursday.

We've got one more session of childbirth class next Wednesday and then we'll be totally, totally ready and prepared for everything that comes our way.  Right?

31-derful

I celebrated my first Mother's Day.  First, Andy took me out to dinner on Friday night, thinking that we'd beat the Sunday-brunch crowds, which we did.  But not the UMASS graduation crowds.  :)  It was (more than) OK because we went to a place out of the immediate Amherst area, and we had a reservation anyway.    I had a steak.  And more than half my share of the bread plate.  And some grilled flatbread with anchovies.  And salted caramel pudding.

I also got a Zingerman's box in the mail on Thursday night, which I had to open immediately, as instructed by the outside of the box.  There were two loaves of bread inside, as well as a jar of olives and a baby bib.

The first loaf, chocolate cherry bread, became Saturday's baked french toast.

 Delicious, of course.  The next loaf, the Farm Loaf, was almost too large for our serrated knife.

Brisco had to check it out.

 Cooking--er, really just melting butter at that point.  Tempeh reubens with amazing (and sometimes painful) bread.

 We spent some time this weekend decorating Jane's room and putting things away.  Pam and Mark got us these wall decals, which are great because they are removable.  Tree in progress.

 Brisco looking out Jane's window.

 Me, "helping" Andy put the tree pieces up.  It was like a puzzle because the pieces were all numbered, but not in any order, and the brown bark pieces shown on the key were numbered in black, over the brown (so, not easy to see).  Andy did most of it.  It got cool last night but we didn't want to close the windows so I'm wearing my beloved Big Boy sweatshirt.

 Jane's closet.  Andy hung all the onesies in size-order.

 Completed tree!  We also got some butterfly decals, but they're not up yet.  We've got a few more decorations to put up, but also need to think about where other furniture will go.

George behind bars.

I'm definitely getting bigger.  Well, she is.

 Thanks, Matt, for the inspiration for this shirt!

30 Weeks(!) and the Jane's afoot

What a great day yesterday was!  Baby shower!  We have decided that this kicky girl is named Jane Rocella.  In this picture I am giving Jane bunny ears.

 The weather was great, the Leckies hosted and Mark ran the grill.  There was a batch of Fraass baby-que sauce for guests to take home, and although I didn't try it yesterday (apparently it was on the chicken), Andy's excited to have several jars of it at home.  Plus, the label has a fire-breathing dinosaur.

The girls for whom I used to nanny came with their mom, and Josie had included many cards.  This one included a drawing of me, Andy, Jane, and Brisco.  (You can see the image a little bigger if you click on it.)  They got me a big stuffed Curious George, which is perfect for me.  I mean, for Jane.  :)

We got so much stuff that I can't possibly remember to list here, but it was really a great day and we're feeling much better-prepared (ha, right?) than we were before.  Brisco was most interested in all the things we were bringing inside and putting in "his" room (i.e., the nursery)--that's been his favorite place to hang out since we moved there.  Don't get too comfortable, dog.

You can see in the above pictures that Andy and I had a boutineer and a coursage.  We even wore them to the grocery store after the shower.  An employee said, "You must be having a girl.  Congratulations!"  :)

I've got a couple of appointments this week to meet our potential new provider, as well as an already-scheduled one with my old peeps, and birth ed. class on Wednesday.  Brisco's also got a follow-up to his teeth extraction today, and volunteering on Thursday... busy week and it hasn't even started yet.

It was dark when we got home so I couldn't have Andy take the standard shot by the fridge (which just seems to be where we get the best daytime light), so here's the about-to-crash-for-the-night shot:

Big, huge THANKS to Pam, Lindsey, and Renata for all the work you put into the shower planning.  It was beautiful, fun, laid-back, and the food was delicious.  Thank you so much!