Domestic Goddess

Today is diapers day, I'm finally getting around to prepping my diapers so they'll be super absorbent. I've had the ones that need prepping hanging in a bag on the stairs (you can see the bag way back in my week 35 pic, lol) for quite some time, I knew I wanted to boil the unbleached stuff in dawn, as that's supposed to be like the same as 3 washes. And well, my pan was always dirty :D

But that's all done, and the washing machine just beeped at me. I think I'm going to throw the rest of the stuff, but not the covers, in, and then I'll give them all a dry.  Hoping I don't mess anything up!

Boi had a good birthday, or so I think. Between the two of us, we got some nice distractions for when Peanut is here, here's hoping he stops crying long enough for us to enjoy them. (I'd make a crack about the both of them crying, but let's face it, Boi is beyond solid, in fact, I'd be goo on the ground without him) Plus lots of yummy food, pie and potato pancakes oh my! Ooooh I think it's time for a list.

Reasons why I can't wait for Peanut to get here:

1. I'll have a baby. Duh


2. I won't be pregnant anymore


3. Boi will be using his vacation time on us, and he's got an extra week this year ^.^


4. Cute squishie bonding moments


5. I'll have some new pictures to hang in the dining room


6. All that hard work preparing will hopefully pay off


7. Being able to move around without pain


8. Labor worries will be a thing of the past


9. Being a 3 person family


10. Wearing normal clothes again

That's a decent list. It's not necessarily in any particular order.

We've got an appointment on Friday, and then the weeklys start up right away on Tuesday. The next appointment promises to be ...especially special. Boi for sure has Friday off, let's see if he remembers to bring home the schedule for next week. So far he hasn't missed a single appointment though :) But he's coming home RIGHT NOW which is excellent. I should go make sure things are ready for his arrival. AKA make sure it doesn't look like I've been lazy all day. Should be good though - dishes done, laundry put away, bed is made (have I mentioned the bed? Due to my hot flashes and hourly bathroom runs, we sleep with two quilts. Really I just use the blanket as an extra pillow though...) random shit picked up, diapers in their final wash cycle, cats and Peanut are still alive and have all been fed. What more could ya ask for?

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow Boi turns 32 (holy cow he's old!) and Peanut turns -4 weeks. Alas, it'll likely be a quiet day, in that Boi works. Sighs - I made him an extremely high calorie dessert last night though, so we're spreading out the celebration. That reminds me, I could put his present in something nicer than a brown box. Either way, I'm going to try to get it through his head that tomorrow he should come home on time, as then he can watch the Brewers play on TV since WGN is airing it. And if he can get out a bit early, all the better!

Ooooooooooh hi Peanut, what are you doing? I take it you liked that juice I took my vitamin with!

Yesterday... Boi had the day off, alas he had to do a few things like mow the lawn. But now he doesn't have to worry about it at least :) I went out to give him a hand, cleaning up some sticks and pruning the maple tree so it stops attacking things in our driveway. I came back in for a drink of water and to check my skin for pinkness, and then suffered two close together contractions. Soooooo I hung out inside for a bit. But my body forgave my hauling stuff around and let me get back to life.

Then we had our last childbirth class, a lot of the class was going over relaxation techniques.So basically a lot of massages and such for me. Except that she gave us ice to hold on to to simulate contractions. Yaaaaaay pain. 

We got home, I started making him his dessert, and for the last few days, Peanut has been floating very high and sideways. We're fairly confident we could make out his head/torso/butt. I took out the bowl to stir in the living room, and that didn't last very long. I started cramping up, so I sat back and prepared to wait out what I figured was just another contraction for 30 seconds. A minute or two later it obviously was not that, he was wayy too active and it was still going and getting worse. So I opted to just curl up as pain and nausea had joined the fray, and I called Boi over to give me what I hoped would be a distracting massage. 10 minutes of hell later, I could sit up and talk normally again. And lo and behold, the head/torso/butt were no longer stuck in my ribs, and instead I had and still have a relatively shapless hard lump. 

So... now I know why babies don't turn much the last month and why they don't like to manually turn babies. Because it's HELLISH. But on the plus side, I'm thinking the shapeless lump that likes to move around up by my ribs are his feet again, which means he's spun into the right position. Now I just need to focus on keeping myself as much as I can in a good position to make sure he's facing backwards too. Then hopefully I won't go to 41-42 weeks! A girl can dream. Alas, about the only relief I can get for my upper back pain right now is to lean back against something.... which is not an optimal position.

Now time to get you guys dizzy! I thought I'd just do a spinny move up in Peanut's room, here's the result

I'm clearly getting lazy about posting

But oh well. Last night and tomorrow night we had 'Childbirth Preperation Class.' Sitting in a chair for longish periods of time isn't so easy, lol :) But we got our tour, I was the know-it-all (seriously no one else would answer? common sense questions) and Boi said he learned stuff so yay!

Mmmm, just finished off the ice cream.

I've been getting a little cranky as I got some contractions in my 20 week range, and nothing in my 30. But now I've gotten a few in the last few days, so I'm no longer mad at Peanut for not doing anything to prepare for evacuating me. So he can keep at it nice and slow and then in two weeks he can start getting more serious ;)

Less than a month to go till my due date, so 1.5 - 6.5 weeks to go!

Got mom's wall hanging up! It looks very nice :D it's multilayer-ed, the clouds are puffy, and Dad helped out with some perspective stuff, so it looks awesome I think.

Today's been up and down (per the norm I guess) I was in the car and spent the whole time wanting to lose my lunch, bad back pain, wooziness tonight, and a headache, felt like I was having a bit of an allergy problem, and well, Peanut spent a good chunk of time hurting me. We're actually pretty sure he just did a flip of some sort (better not on his way to being head up, but no distinctive kicks since) I hope Boi makes it home at a reasonable hour, I could use a footrub. Even if my feet don't hurt, pleasure hits your brain faster then pain, so it helps to block out some of my misery. Especially when I've got a good mosquito bite going on on my foot.

Heeeeeeey maybe I should expose my feet to a mosquito when I go into labor. Intense pleasure of having that bite rubbed, maybe I won't feel any pain at all? Mwaa haa haa!

35 Weeks

Well kids, we're at 35 weeks. 2-7 weeks to go. I'm slowly coming off my Patrick Stewart high, but it's happily being replace by a Boi high. My birthday week was great, but now it's time to start celebrating his birthday week. I made him pancakes yesterday, yum! But then I was going to clean, and I was just a bit too miserable yesterday, and my bad leg was hurting quite a bit, so not much happened. Hopefully today it'll be better, I'm doing a Tylenol regimen so maybe I can get a little bit more done. I want to get a variety of things done - from sweeping off the deck (acorns are falling) and the front walk, work on some empty walls in both the master and the nursery, and of course the standard dishes and laundry.

It's definitely getting harder and harder to rev myself up and get stuff done, clearly 35 weeks pregnant isn't quite the same as 15 weeks :) Information on Peanut from the web: Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete � he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

If he's at least 5 pounds for real I'm happy. I keep thinking back to him looking small at 20 weeks, so I figure rounding down is logical. Then he should be 6 pounds in two weeks. That's a good healthy weight.

My birthday was good - my parents, unlce B and Boi went up the local 'mountain' for a picnic lunch. Oooh yeah, Jed came too :) Then we drove around, Dad trying to get us lost, to check out some stuff we noticed from our birds eye view. We went back to the folks for pie and presents then -yummy and yay! They got me some cloth diapers, a book, a wall sticker for the nursery (pictured).... a frisbee? and an excellent tea brewing cup. I've been very good about getting at least 2 cups of raspberry leaf tea since getting that. It 'twas a good day! K and I also went out and got ourselves mani pedi's, wisely used some $10 off coupons and got me a new 2ish dollar shirt and the dress seen up above for $7. I have a few new options now :) and they're a bit cuter then the plain stuff I was wearing to boot. And mom cut my hair, so Thursday was a pretty transforming day for me.

OOOOOOOOoooh yeah, Mom finished her fantasy wall hanging for Peanut, complete with a dragon and a frog. K got me a little stuffed dragon as well. I have decided that K's dragon's name is Stanley, Mom's dragon is ScottRika, and ... we have yet to name the frog. Mr Frog will likely work just fine. But I don't have that hung yet, I'll update with a pic of that when that's done.

Gonna go be productive!

Baaaaaabymoon

I'm just going to type out everything as I remember it, so prepare for crazy length!

It turned out great. I was dragging almost the whole time (slept ~ 1 hour Thursday night and ~3 Friday night) but I think I was able to push it aside without getting overly cranky. The planes were both pretty stress free, got to go through the metal detector both ways so no worries about being pregnant with the new technologies. M&J were good fun and good sports, driving us around. I think I walked more this weekend then I have since my pains started at 20 weeks! We went to the Field Museum on Friday, the Horse exihibit was a bit lame, the Whale one was much cooler. Then all the animals were enjoyable - though I didn't see my favorite monkey, the Bonobo. We went over to Boi's cousin's house that night for dinner and had fun playing with their kids.

Saturday was the big day then, Comic-Con (Wizard World, whatever). Alas I only slept a couple hours, as mentioned before, but my stomach once again stayed pretty ok. M dropped us off, and we stood in line for awhile. There was an indian wedding going on outside of the entrance. Lots of loud music, dancing, and a horse - a bit crazy - but they likely thought the same about us :) We wandered around for awhile, oogling cool looking items, each of us keeping our eyes opened for a few things. They had very few kid specific things there, like they had cute toadstool hats, but only for adults. And also not a lot of variety in the plushies... so Peanut didn't get anything.

Then we came across the photo-op area, saw that Sir Patrick Stewart started around noon, so we went to grab some crappy food before moving on to it. We really should have wandered a bit further in as there was a better food court in the photo op area. Then we went back, bought our ticket, and wandered waaaaaaay far away to get to the end of the line. That line wasn't too bad actually, it moved quickly. When we got into the photo area, we noticed that A) he only shook hands with people who had their hands extended and B) if you were a solo female he'd put his arm around your shoulder. Boi immediately offered to just step to the side and let me take the pic alone so I'd get more squee-able contact... but I didn't feel right about that. And in the end I'm perfectly happy with my handshake. He also told me he liked my shirt :) We stood next to him, I begged the photo gods to let the picture turn out, and the next thing I knew we were being shown the exit, and I believe Patrick told us to 'have fun' and I responded in kind, but it was such a blur at that point. We verified with the girl in front of us at that point where the pictures would show up and about how long it would take, she figured an hour or so based on her other pictures (daamn).

Then we decided to head out to sit out in the entrance area and chill out for a few minutes. So we relaxed on the side of a fountain and watched a little girl playing for a bit. Cute as a bug :) Decided then to check out the Q&A rooms since Patrick Stewart was to speak at 2. We found them easily enough, and the original Willy Wonka kids were supposed to start right about then, so we decided to sit in. We saw a small crowd on the side but ignored them. The Q&A was fun, Mike TeaVee and Veruca Salt were the most outspoken, lots of questions about the Oompa Loompas :) Of course when it ended, they cleared us out vs letting us stay. Sigh, by the time we found the end of the line, we could hear someone telling people that there were already too many people in line and they were cutting it off. So we missed the Patrick Stewart Q&A. So we wandered around a bit longer, eventually picking up a comic book for Boi, and we caught the Felicia Day Q&A at 3. Sadly I think I liked the Willy Wonka one a bit better, maybe we should have gone to the LaVar Burton one. But you never know ahead of time, do you?

I was beyond exhausted at this point, and M couldn't pick us up afterwards, so we started wandering in the direction Boi believed the train line was. We had just cleared the convention center when it started to rain. And barely any further when it started to downpour. Of course I can barely walk faster than a meander and we were stuck halfway between the convention center and the overpass, and my pelvis and right leg were already in searing pain from just that distance. Nothing much more to do then grip my leg (fricking feels like it's going to fall off when it gets that bad) and go as fast as I could. Fortunately when we make it there are spots to sit down, and I'm able to rest up and... stop getting rained on. After a bit, we start to get worried as we can't see the train entrance, which should be right around there, so Boi went off to scope up ahead, so if it wasn't there I wouldn't have to waste the steps. Fortunately it was :) and by the time he got back the rain was letting up, so we made our way on, at a happier slower pace.

The train was fun, once we figured out which way to go and how to get a pass. I've only been on these types of transportation due to Boi (first in Atlanta at his younger brothers, then in Philly with his mom) so it was still a treat for me. Then we got off the train, and lo and behold farther away then we hoped, so we got in my first taxi and took off. Anti-climatic to be sure, but the driver put Prairie Home Companion on so hey. M met us with an umbrella (yaaaaaaaaay I hope he meant to give it to me coz I took it - lol!) and soon I was back and relaxing on the couch, getting my poor feet rubbed.

We decide that we're going out, and likely for Peruvian food, but J is still out with the car and we decide to wait for her so it'd be one happy group. So we pop in a video and watch some of the bonus stuff for awhile, then she showed up. We agreed to go with the original food plan, and take off, just a couple block walk. The food was good, though the service was a bit slow. We got a pitcher of some cinnamon and clove carrot juice? that was tasty, and I accidentally spread my bread with super spicy sauce after asking and getting the wrong answer from J, she told me it was just butter :) We split some of my first ceviche, and it was tasty, but didn't really help the spice level on my tongue much! I was still feeling fine at this point. Our food came, I got lamb and rice and beans, and it was really good, plus J shared some of her cow heart with me, also very good. I got like... a third of the way through my plate, when suddenly I felt super full and it was getting hard to breathe. Peanut decided to move up into my rib cage. I got up to use the bathroom to hopefully get him to move back down, and I sat back down and felt a bit better... for about a minute. He was apparently still up there and started going crazy again. Now instead of just feeling uncomfortable, I felt lightheaded and sick to my stomach. Boi took me outside, and I collapsed against the building, the only thing keeping me from just dropping unconscious was my deep desire to throw up and the only thing keeping me from doing that was the fact that I was struggling to stay conscious and breathe. The air outside did me good though, and (I hope only) 5-10 minutes later we wandered back inside, all my organs back into working order. I got a doggy bag, and we took off. 

We got back, I laid down, still not feeling quite 100%, and they popped in the movie we were eyeing up before dinner. Then we went to bed. Fortunately that night I was able to sleep. I even fell asleep easily with each of my wakeups.  I'd wake up and tell myself, shoot, I'm kinda awake, I'm not going to fall asleep, and then the next thing I'd know it'd be a bit lighter outside :) We chilled out on Sunday, I ate some of my leftovers (forgot to finish it though, sorry M&J!), M, Boi and I played some Mario, and we went out  for hot dogs for lunch. I had a dog covered in.... pickled veggies, avocado cream and some other stuff, it was tasty I thought, though greasy. Then we went back and sat around until they managed to get ahold of Boi's younger brother, and they got him on Skype for awhile. But we were running short on time, and soon we were packing up (taking great care of the magical picture) and we made our way to the airport. Our flight was delayed, but only 15 minutes. Zoooooom on the plane, this time Boi got to sit next to me, we watched out the window, Peanut behaving better on the way back than the way there. We arrived without incident and Mom drove us home.

Lo and behold, there was a package at our door. Now we had an incident earlier the prior week. Said package was supposed to arrive on Wednesday and was a gift from my dad. On Thursday when it still didn't arrive, he looked it up, and the notes said it was delivered on Wednesday at 5:06 PM "to a woman." Definitely was not me, as I do my best to avoid all human contact. Alas, I went out on Thursday to chat with the neighbors to see if they saw anything, but came up blank. So 1 of 3 things happened the way I see it. Either 1) there was a shipping mistake and it was delivered over the weekend, 2) whoever accepted the package delivered it to our door for us upon realizing the mistake ( at least 2 days later...) or 3) Amazon agreed to send a second one out at no cost, but it was supposed to be then shipped to Dad's and not till like, today or something. So if he gets a second one, we'll know it's one of the first two.

Can't wait to see what it is if nothing else though ;)

So yeah, that was my Babymoon. Glad we got to use that airplane credit before it expired too. Taking it easy today, drinking lots of water as we have a doctors appointment tomorrow. I don't want to go in dehydrated and stressed out, that's for sure! That was a lot of fun typing, but I think that covers most everything. Time to take a break from typing - though I'll admit, I did this in a few different typing sessions! But I think I has a hungry now... mmmm.... dinner... if only we had food here....

Cleaning!

<-- Out the Window.

33 weeks eh? I reckon I ought to start thinking about a hospital bag. I don't expect to get it fully packed by any means, but a start. Get his stuff together and some of the less obvious stuff, like a nail file as I hear the nurses won't clip his nails for you even if they're like daggers. Considering I only have a few things that fit me (too cheap to buy maternity clothes!) I can't really pack for myself until the time comes.

Ugh, last night sucked, for both Boi and I. From like 4-11 I was beyond exhausted. Spent most of the time immobilized in bed or on the couch, but unable to actually doze off. Then it flipped off... and stayed flipped off. Boi finished up playing his game around 1230, we went up to bed, he usually passes out quickly. I read several chapters in my book and then realized he wasn't asleep yet. I felt a bit bad, so I flipped off the light and spent the majority of the night alternating between lying on my left side and letting my left leg fall asleep, then flipping to my right so my right arm can fall asleep. I really should have just gotten up and come downstairs to try, but I was stubborn.

Today I was alternating between working, cleaning, and rereading Harry Potter (I've made it halfway through the 5th book) I was very good and kept to the schedule, didn't really watch tv (aside from when I was cooking and such) or surf the net. Still doesn't feel like I accomplished much, but I know I did.

My work timer website is down due to a 'partial power outage' super nervous. I mean, I pretty much know what I did today because I remember glancing at the total time column during my last spurt, but if they lost data, and more then just today's data.... that's a baaaaaaad situation. I haven't pulled down a report in awhile. *gulp* guess I just have to keep watching it. PLUS my internet has been wonky today to boot. Stupid Charter.

I'll just go calm myself down with some homemade bread. Especially delicious after visiting Mom for some blueberry pie :D

Peanut kicks hello!

Going on a jet plane...

Neeeeeext weekend! Got our plane tickets, ordered tickets for the event, Boi's brother will be in town, everything seems to be coming up roses! We'll see how I do when we actually get there, but I see no reason to be anything but optimistic!

33 weeks, like pretty much now. 7 weeks to go. 49 days.

6 days till our trip. 12 days till my birthday. Ummmm 10 days till we hear Peanut's heartbeat again?

Peanut is what's important here! The little bugger has been (read: I believe) pushing out with his feet like 3 inches above my belly button. After a few days of that, its getting a bit sore. Here you go, straight from the web, a progress report on where he should be at!

"This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood."

Next week, 99% of babies have no problems breathing at birth. Cook baby cook!

My raspberry leaf tea has now steeped and it is going in my belly, it's not bad stuff. I haven't been drinking it long, but it's supposedly good for labor. Hey, if there's half a chance in hell that it shaves a little time off labor or the pushing stage, I'll drink 1-3 cups of it a day.

One more uncomfortable day tomorrow and then we're back into the 70's. I'm going to be giddy. Giddy you hear me? I will frolic in the streets (read: waddle to the deck) and sing songs of joy (read: not bitch about being hot) I think I'll even make chili and bread for Boi.

Happy weekend everyone!

It's our birthday month!

Crib mattress arrived today, got it installed and sheeted up. Still need to decide on like a mattress pad, pee guard, whatever, just to make sure the mattress stays kosher. One step at a time says I! In the meantime, Pooh and Piglet will have to hold it. Prolly stick them next to the changing table later on here. Right now they're being good guards.

Yay, not only is it Boi's and my birthday month, but NEXT month Peanut will be here! Huzzah and all that stuff.

 

We're halfway to 33 weeks, so I'm hopeful that he's now reached 4lbs. Excellent milestone. We're back to measuring on track as well.

Picture number two, we have the chair and the tree and the dresser.

I think I'll be putting a garbage receptacle of some sort next to it.

It's a tall picture. So since I don't feel wordy tonight, well, I think you're getting the picture.

Actually I don't have anything else to say. Boi wakes up for work in a few hours, contemplating just sleeping on the recliner tonight. Not the one in the picture, the super squishie one that is hard enough to get out of solo never mind with an infant. But comfy.

Next month you guys. Unless I go late. The doc says she'll let me go up to two weeks late. But Peanut, you won't do that to me right? Plus some random internet quiz told me I'd go 2-3 weeks early. THE INTERNET DOESN'T LIE!