Still waiting...

So the 38th week has turned out to be similar to the rest of this pregnancy, full of unnecessary worry, hospital trips, and lying down. At Centering on Wednesday night my blood pressure was significantly elevated. This was concerning because so far it's been remarkably steady and low. Also, I had been feeling nauseous and had a slight headache all day. All of those symptoms combined usually lead to something called Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH), which can develop into preeclampsia and eventually eclampsia. The midwives rechecked my BP at the end of the night to see if the first reading was just a fluke, but somehow it rose even further to 145/90. I didn't even know those numbers were possible. For comparison, I'm usually at 110/70-ish. That score earned me an immediate trip to the hospital for blood tests and fetal monitoring. My BP dropped back to normal pretty quickly, the baby is doing just fine, but of course one of the three blood tests came back borderline. That means I've been on modified bed rest since Wednesday. I'm allowed to sit up, do some yoga in the morning, and go for a walk in the evening, but that's about it. No packing or cleaning under any circumstances. 

I had a check-up Friday morning to draw some more blood and my BP was well within the normal range again. The new blood tests came back clear too, but I'm still on bed rest until tomorrow's appointment. Hopefully they'll tell me I can go back to doing things, at least somewhat. I'm trying to keep myself occupied with knitting, reading, and getting caught up on some random paperwork stuff but it is driving me crazy to look at all the stuff I could be putting in boxes and not be able to do anything about it. Also, I feel absolutely disgusting. I was feeling humongous before, but I was able to workout everyday to at least feel like I was not turning into a giant walrus. Now it feels like my muscles are atrophying and I'm turning into Jabba the Hutt. I'm also not hungry at all because I'm doing anything. That in turn leads to me not eating enough, which makes me feel even more nauseous and less hungry. It is not fun. 

On Thursday, Joe's work threw a goodbye party/baby shower for us. Because I had just been placed on bed rest, I was not able to go. Joe sent me lots of pictures, though. Here's one of the cake. He also brought home about a quarter of it. It is a delicious chocolate sheet cake with just a little bit of chocolate frosting so it's not too sweet. This is Joe's last week at work, so he's been training his replacement. 

Since I've been mostly immobile during the day, Duncan has decided that I am the best new piece of furniture there ever could be. In particular, he feels the need to be on or near my belly at all times. At one point I was lying on my side with Duncan perched on top purring loudly. The baby kicked pretty hard in Duncan's direction, at which time Duncan decided to kick back. They went back and forth for a couple of rounds before I shoved Duncan off. I thought feeling a creature move around inside me was weird, but it's definitely weirder to have the creature interact with another creature on the outside. Here's a picture of him snuggled up in my lap one afternoon.

Finally, I have to talk about how grateful I am for Joe. While there are thousands of reasons I love Joe, at this moment, there are three main reasons: 
1) Joe can, and is willing to, cook real food. I am usually the one to cook dinner, but now I can't given the whole bed rest thing. Joe and I cook together on the weekends, but over the last week he's prepared almost every meal as well as taking care of the shopping and working. I am so grateful that he can make real food and not just frozen pizza. Even though I'm not super hungry, I feel better eating fresh produce and healthy food. 
2) After July 16 and until classes start September 20, Joe will be home full-time. The couples at Centering have been talking about maternity and paternity leave and when they have to go back to work. One woman has to return to her job part-time beginning at 2 weeks. I am extremely grateful that we will be able to be together so much for the first couple months of our new life as a family. Also, that we have the resources for me to be able to not have to go back to work right away. Between having a baby, moving, and Joe starting law school I don't think I would be able to handle trying to find a job without freaking out as well. It is extremely comforting to know that is one pressure that I can put off for several months until we're somewhat settled. 
3) Joe is unflappable. While I'm panicking about whatever is happening around me, he manages to remain extremely calm and rational. Not only can he remain calm, but he is pretty good at helping me calm down too (not an easy task, I assure you). Most importantly, he manages to do so in a non-patronizing or annoying way. This makes me feel better about labor, delivery, and childrearing knowing that at least one of us will be sane. 

Let the countdown begin

As of yesterday, I am 37 weeks pregnant. That means that if I go into labor anytime over the next four weeks we can go to the Birth Center, and not the hospital! Woohoo! No signs yet, but it really could be any day now given the uncertainty in my due date. According to my records, I am officially 37 weeks and 1 day along, but Kerry, our Centering midwife, thinks that I could be anywhere from 37 to 39 weeks. They gave me the later due date for the official paper work so that there's less of a chance of having to be induced and end up at the hospital (anytime after 41 weeks). Baby's giving me wicked heartburn, and still moving a lot. While I'm grateful for the indication that everything is still ok, it does get a little bit annoying to have a squirming gremlin feel like it's trying to escape from inside of you. Yesterday Joe had his head next to my belly and the baby punched him in the jaw when he said something to me. (We don't really know what body part it was, but it was small and knobbly. From the position, it was probably a knee.) I guess that means baby's ears are working just fine and was either really excited to hear dad's voice or really angry. 

Here's a really awkward picture of myself. Yes I am barefoot and pregnant standing in our kitchen. And no I don't have to go to the bathroom as suggested by my poor hand placement. 

This weekend Joe and I did a ridiculous amount of cooking and baking. We're trying to use up miscellaneous items in our cabinets and fridge so we don't have to throw away a bunch of food when we move in August. For this weekend, that lead to: lemon poppy seed pound cake (pictured below), buffalo chicken wings from scratch, matar paneer, chicken biryani, very random salads, buttermilk pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and grilled steak. So far, everything's been good. Now we're getting down to the more unusual ingredients so we'll see how creative we can get. I have to say, I make pretty good pound cake. It tastes like a lemon poppy seed muffin with a light lemon glaze on top. It's fluffy like a muffin, but moist like pound cake. And is extremely refreshing served cold from the fridge with a super thin layer of butter on top. 

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.