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. 

Stranger Danger

This week has felt extremely long. We're finishing up finals at school and the kids are done, the teachers are done, and everyone knows we're almost to the end. This next week I have two more days of classes, an exploration day (where we take the students out to do community service), an honors/disorientation day, and inservice. I think and hope it will go by more quickly than last week. 

A strange phenomenon has started to occur: strangers keep asking me to hold their babies. It happened on two separate occasions, in two different locations, during two very different activities. The first time happened while I was sitting at the raffle table for our Neighborhood Association Spring Fling. A man who wasn't wearing a shirt asked me to hold his son while he filled out raffle tickets. That time, it wasn't so weird (ok, it was a little weird that a grown man wasn't wearing a shirt in public, but the baby part wasn't that weird). The second time I was standing in line at the grocery store and this woman asked me to hold her baby while she went to go get another tub of ice cream. She did make sure to take her purse with her. I can only think of three reasons people are now asking me to do this: 

1) I look like I need the practice. 
2) I appear to be trustworthy. A pregnant woman clearly has no reason to run off with a baby, she has one coming. 
3) I look the same, but the parent figures if I do try to make off with their child they can probably catch me because I am clearly 7 months pregnant and can't possibly run that fast. 

Either way, I find this behavior bizarre and a little bit disturbing. I just can't imagine asking someone else to hold my child while I ran to get more ice cream. 

In other pregnancy news, I got the results back from my 3 hour glucose test, and they were well within the normal range. I wasn't too stressed about this because it turns out I was given twice the normal dosage of glucose for the 1 hour, and the mistake wasn't realized until I took a look at the lab sheet. Now, I know these things happen, but why do they always seem to happen to me?  In other good news, though, we had what will probably be the final ultrasound for this pregnancy. For once, the baby was exactly the size it should be given its age. The baby weights about 3 pounds 4 ounces, and is in the 44th percentile for weight. The estimated due date based on the sonogram is July 26, which is EXACTLY the same as the last two have been. (This date also happens to be my mother's birthday.) This week I haven't gained any weight, which is probably a good thing because I gained about 5 pounds over the previous two weeks. I think the baby had a major growth spurt and is gearing up for the next one. My nutrition and exercise has been exactly the same for basically the last 4 months, so I can't think of any other reason for that to happen. I've been showing a lot of side pictures, so I thought I'd take one from the front this week. Enjoy!

Babies!

This weekend Joe and I went to go see the new movie out called Babies. It was amusing and bizarre at the same time. The movie follows four babies from Mongolia, Japan, Namibia, and the US. There is no narration other than the babblings, cryings, and snifflings of said babies. They all appear to be healthy and happy. It was very much like the kind of show you would see on Animal Planet. Needless to say the Mongolian baby was my favorite. Seeing all the footage of the steppe and the interior of the yurts makes me want to go back. All in all, I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend this movie to anyone else, but I'm glad I saw it.

This week one of Joe's coworkers gave us a baby gift. She made a bouquet out of baby clothes and included some other small items. In the picture below Duncan is of course trying to eat the "flowers". Note the small hippopotamus piggy bank next to the vase. She gave us that as well, and I think it might be my favorite thing. The other picture is of all the things that were wrapped up in the bouquet, plus a few extra. I also enjoy the tiny red sneakers. 

And finally, I will 30 weeks on Monday. Only 10 more weeks left! This is a slightly terrifying thought because we really don't have anything other than the items pictured above plus the Mei Tai carrier. Our plan is to get as little as possible, seeing as we will be moving to Chicago shortly after the baby is born. We're trying to only get the true essentials, and we plan on starting that when I finish up with school. I went for my second glucose test this weekend. This time it was the 3 hour version that had to be taken after fasting for 8 hours. It was pretty miserable. Joe came with me and fasted for the same amount of time. He's much better at dealing with hunger than I am and he was very patient with me while I was mean and snippy. This week we have an ultrasound to make sure the baby is growing at the correct rate as well as check the position. 

Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

Being obviously pregnant on Mother's Day is a bizarre experience. People just aren't sure what to say to you. In the grocery store the clerk started to say it, then realized I didn't have any other small children with me and just kind of trailed off like I didn't quite deserve it yet. Some people have said "Happy Soon-to-be Mother's Day" which seems like it should be some sort of quasi-holiday of it's own. One person even said "Enjoy your last non-Mother's Day." I think that last one is a little harsh. Emotionally, I don't feel like a mother yet, but physically I feel like saying "heck yeah, I want to sit and do nothing today." So we ended up compromising in our house. I got to do all the cleaning and laundry I wanted (yes, I consider that a good thing) and then I got to take a break while Joe cooked me a delicious lunch of his famous grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. 

In honor of being done with Army (just about), Joe has decided he is going to start growing a beard. Here is a picture of one week razor-free. I like it. 

As for me, I am 29 weeks along today. I got the results of my glucose test back, and I guess it was a little bit high. I had a small cup of coffee with no sweetener in it that morning, so maybe that kicked it up. I find it hard to believe that I have gestational diabetes after spending 6 hours a day walking around school, at least 3 legitimate workouts per week, and eating piles of vegetables instead of junk food. However, I now get to have the pleasure of taking the 3 hour glucose tolerance test on Saturday morning. The first one made me super nauseous and I was allowed to eat before it, so this one should be super fun after fasting for 3 hours and then drinking the gross sludge. We have another Centering class this week. We will be beginning to talk about labor and all the different options at both the Birth Center and their affiliated hospital. 

This week we had our Centering class on Wednesday at the Birth and Women's Health Center, where we'll be having the baby (hopefully!). It's a group of five midwives and several delivery nurses that all focus on healthy, natural births. They are extremely strict about who is eligible to give birth at the center, you have to be in a certain age and weight range, have no complications, and begin labor by week 41. If you develop any problems during your pregnancy, you will have to give birth at their affiliated hospital, the Tucson Medical Center, that is 3 minutes away and a midwife from the Birth Center will still be your primary care provider during the whole birth. 

The Centering class is one of their prenatal care options. It is a group of women and their partners (or whoever else wants to come along) that are all due around the same time who meet together for prenatal appointments in the evening. We weigh ourselves, have our blood pressure taken, and have complete access to all of our medical records including correspondence from the ultrasound technicians and lab results. Each couple meets privately with the midwife for about ten minutes to listen to the heartbeat, do a general check-up, and measure the size of your belly. The rest of the time is spent in group discussion. There's usually a general topic, but really it's whatever is on people's minds. I really like it because I would never think to ask some of the questions that the other women do, so it has been really informative. It's also really cool to have all the men be there and be able to ask their questions and talk to each other as well. We have been meeting once per month up until now. As of this week it will start to be every two weeks, and then down to every week in the month of July. 

This weekend we went up to Phoenix because Joe had his final National Guard drill responsibilities, which included his Change of Command Ceremony. Horray for almost being done with the Army! His official service out date is June 4, but he's pretty much done with doing things for now. We stayed in a hotel we found on Hotwire, called the Indigo Hotel. It was extremely hip. The shower had a single pane of glass near where the shower head was, with a 1ft diameter whole cut in it. And that was it. No door, no curtain, just empty space. Somehow, water did not end up all over the bathroom like I expected it to. I finally figured out the hole: it's so you can reach into the shower to turn the water on without it getting all over you until it's warm. At least that's my best guess. Our door opened to the outside, and the sun was shining so as to cast a perfect shadow of us. So we decided to experiment with shadow pictures. They are deceptively hard to take, and this is the best of the bunch. 

The way my hair was sticking up reminded me of some sort of Dr. Seuss character, and then I figured it out: the Sneeches! I think it would be difficult to tell the difference between a Sneech and me if all you had to go on was the shadow we cast.