28 Days

That's it. Twenty-eight days, or four weeks, until we are the sole caretakers of an infant child. This morning we had the birth-plan visit with one of the midwives, Sandy. We basically said we have absolutely no idea what to expect during this whole labor and birth thing, and we're ok with that. As long as we end up with a happy, healthy baby at the end of it, the middle part isn't that important. Ideally, everything will go smoothly and we won't have to have any sort of medical interventions, but if not that's ok too. Our plan is to not have any expectations about how this is going to go since neither of us have been through it before. That way we can be fully present and aware of what is happening, and not be stressing out about what isn't. I feel much better about this non-planning after talking with Sandy. I thought we were just being delinquent parents by not planning the perfect birth, but she was very reassuring. No matter what anyone plans it seems to change, so if we don't have any preconceived notions about how it is "supposed" to go, we won't be disappointed. 



The baby's heartbeat is strong, and baby moves ALL of the time. Also, baby is the right size for this stage and in the right position. My fundal height is 35cm or 37cm depending on who measures it (it's supposed to be about the same as the number of weeks along you are). Apparently my pelvis is very shallow, so they're not really sure where to start measuring near the bottom. Since I'm 36 weeks, and that happens to be the average of 35 and 37, everything is all good. I've had a few Braxton-Hicks contractions sporadically throughout the week, but thankfully nothing nearly as regular as when I was in the hospital a few weeks back. 

No pictures this week, sorry. We just forgot. And I wanted to get this post done while the lasagna was finishing baking before Joe got home. We are working on putting together an awesome playlist for bringing with to the birth center. Any suggestions?

Holy cow!

We're having a baby! While this is not really ground breaking news to y'all, the idea is finally starting to sink in for both Joe and me. This weekend I did a load of laundry that included a bunch of onesies and itty-bitty socks. Then we put these tiny garments into a drawer where they looked even tinier. That's when it both hit us: we're actually having a baby AND it's coming soon. We even have all the necessary stuff for this baby to come tomorrow if it wanted, though it still has 5 more weeks. We have Centering this Wednesday, and our official 36-week appointment next Monday. This is where we sit down with one of the midwives and discuss our birth plan in excruciating detail. I've been struggling with this because how am I supposed to know what I want until it's actually happening? I know myself well enough to know that whatever I write down will change six times before then, and twice during. So, we'll see how that goes. 

The inspiration for this camera angle came from a fellow St. Olaf blogger, Becky V (This New Life). I liked her picture from a couple of weeks ago so much I decided to try to copy it. It looked good on the small screen of my digital camera, but in real size it looks very different. First of all, I do not have a square, tan colored goatee. That is the pendant of my necklace, you just can't see the cord it's attached to because my chin is in the way. Also, my belly looks crooked, which it sometimes is. The baby has fondness for sticking it's little tush up against my ribs and it's arms down on the left side and pushing, thus making it's back bulge off to my right. I like to think of it as the baby practicing downward facing dog. It really is as uncomfortable as it sounds. Finally, note the pile of boxes in the back corner. Those represent everything from my desk at home, school, and from my old office. They took about a day to pack. Until next week, send cool thoughts our way. Desert summer is definitely here! The monsoon can't come soon enough. 

Expecting the Unexpected

This week was full of unexpected things, mostly of the negative variety. Instead of complaining about them all, as was my initial inclination, I will instead focus on all of the positive things that happened. First of all, we bought a car seat! We've been putting off buying anything for the baby, but we finally broke down and made a list of things that we will minimally need. We went with the Graco SnugRide in the On the Run pattern. It has cute little safari animals all over it and is gender neutral enough for our surprise baby. Shopping for car seats is an odd thing. There are the super cheap ones you can get for around $50, and then there are the super-duper ones that must include an emergency power ejection system complete with parachute for more than $400. How on earth are you supposed to know what is actually safe AND reasonably priced as opposed to just a death trap or a scam? Thankfully, Joe's mom sent us a copy of a Consumer Reports book of baby stuff, and it had some good info. The Graco meets all of our needs, and it was even on sale at Burlington. 

We have been keeping the car seat in the back bedroom, covered with a blanket because we didn't want it to get dusty with all of the packing and moving. Of course, Duncan immediately thought we had given him his own personal throne/hammock. He now spends most of his days there and gives us a death stare if we disturb his slumber. 

Finally, I am 34 weeks along today. This picture was taken a few days ago, but I feel like I've gotten at least a couple of inches bigger since then. The baby is still moving around like crazy. I also experienced my first Braxton-Hicks contractions this week, confirmed by a fetal monitor and everything (that was part of the unexpected badness this week, but everything is fine). I certainly hope the next 6 weeks or so pass quickly as I continue to pack and clean and sell things. 

Knitted Cuteness

My first week of house-wifery went reasonably well. Somehow I have become more klutzy than usual and have had several instances of breaking things, dropping things, injuring myself, etc. Nothing too serious that warrants further description, merely annoyances. I managed to get some exercise in each day, visit with a few friends, and begin the onerous task of going through everything we own and figuring out whether to keep, sell, donate, or toss it. On Sunday we went to the Tucson Museum of Art because it is free on the first Sunday of each month. Also, I was feeling the need to walk around for a while in less than 100* heat. It's an interesting little museum, but I'm glad we didn't pay a lot of money to visit it. Joe is extremely good at taking pictures by holding out the camera and getting our faces plus whatever background we want. We have a ton of these pictures where it looks like we've just photoshopped our faces in front of different backgrounds because our position is nearly the same in each one. We call them the "Cheesy Series". It's much harder to do with an iPhone than a regular camera, so we've been slacking a little bit, but I made sure to bring my camera just for this purpose on Sunday. We are in the Plaza de Raices in front of the Art Museum, and in the background is a mural painted by Tucson artist David Tineo. Joe's beard is coming along nicely. 

I've been working on a toy for my co-worker who just had a baby girl named Cleah on Mother's Day. It's taken me shamefully long to complete this sweet little butterfly. The knitting part was fine, but all the sewing together at the end was dreadful. I hate sewing. I knit so that I never have to tie knots, cut thread before it's been used, or any of the other annoying things that come with sewing. The back of the wings are just regular craft felt. Normally, this would not be anything worth commenting on, however, there is apparently some sort of run on felt in Tucson right now. I went to three different craft stores and they all had empty racks of where the felt should have been. The only thing I can think of is that with the start of summer school and camp all the teachers and counselors must have run out to restock their felt supplies. The wings flap a lot on this little guy, and I think it will be fun for Cleah in a couple of months. The final picture includes a turtle I knit for Joe a couple of years back because the butterfly looked so lonely on the brick porch. The turtle's shell is removable. 

Finally, the lovely ladies of ACPA threw me a surprise quasi-baby-shower at the annual end-of-the-school-year-potluck. Each bought me one or two of their favorite children's books, and they all contributed to a hefty Target gift card. Also, Cleah's mom bought me a travel diaper pad thing that can go in any bag because we had a long discussion about the utility of diaper bags when we went for afternoon tea this week. It seems to me that a diaper bag is simply a bag with the word diaper in front of it. Supposedly there are lots of special pockets to keep the mom-on-the-go organized, it's easily washable, and it comes with a changing pad. I have enough bags already with lots of pockets that are easily cleaned, so with this travel changing pad I can just go ahead and use them. Thanks Meaghan! 

Let the house-wifery begin!

Thirty-two weeks done! Only eight more to go! This past week has been the first time I experienced any swelling in my feet or hands. The temperature hit 100*F here in Tucson, and it was like my body said, "Ok. That's enough. We tried our best, but 100* is ridiculous. Let the swelling begin." I've pretty much figured out how to cope with it though, and it's gotten much better over the past couple of days. Also, I'm fairly positive that I've started feeling some Braxton-Hicks contractions. Having never been pregnant before, I'm not entirely sure, but from what I've read/heard that's what I'm feeling. Also, the baby has a fondness for kicking me in the ribs. It's possibly the most annoying thing I've experienced yet. 

Today is the first day of being a stay-at-home-mom (to be). Last summer around this time I also quit my job, but I was going to be volunteering full time at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and I had another job offer for the fall within a week. This time feels a bit more permanent, not to mention daunting. My goal is to figure out how to get all of our stuff back to Chicago, have most of it packed before the baby comes, and do a deep clean of the house we're renting. We'll see how this all pans out. 

In honor of becoming a housewife, I've decided to write about my absolute new favorite kitchen implement, the Chef'n Salad Dressing Emulsifier. I couldn't find a picture of the exact one we bought, but this is extremely close. It's the same brand, but we bought ours at Target, and ours functions a little differently but the same thing is accomplished. I hate regular salad dressing, but love to make my own. The problem is always trying to mix it together enough so it stays mixed by the time you eat it and then what to do with the extra. This magical device solves both of those problems. Ours always has some sort of concoction in it, and I've already given one to someone else as a gift.