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March 30, 2006

33 Weeks, 4 Days - A Little Later

I'm an idiot. I am an ungrateful idiot.

I completely forgot that I didn't write about my shower that was this past weekend. It was awesome. My friends and family were there, and it was nice to see extended family on a happy occasion. Well, most of them, except some crazy ones that were "right where God wants them to be."

Long story. Don't ask.

So anyway, the whole thing was great. The food was great, the place was great, the people were great, and the baby got tons of great stuff off the registry. If you don't believe me, go check out the registry. It is quite sparse. We have to buy the swing and the bjorn and that's it out of everything. Pretty amazing.

It wasn't even the gifts that made me so happy. It was just everyone being there together. And I'm not just saying that so I don't sound like a materialistic jerk. It really made me happy to be able to see these people under nice circumstances and share my happiness (and Darren's, for the brief time he was there) with close friends and family.

The day was, however, exhausting and overwhelming. I wanted to take a nap, but since there were people there I hadn't seen in forever, I wanted to visit with them even more. If I remember correctly, I was pretty much worthless the next day. It probably didn't help that we stayed up late opening packages and trying to put some order back to the baby's room - the dumping ground for all the presents that came into the house. It was a difficult task without furniture, but it's pretty good right now. Once the furniture comes in we can do wash and put all the clothes away and I can wash the toys and put them away too.

Our house actually looks like we're going to have a baby now. There are baby things everywhere you go. It's nice. It makes me happy.

Posted by Terri at 12:20 PM | Comments (3)

33 Weeks, 4 Days

Today's ticker:

I'm about 4.75 lbs & almost 18 inches tall; My central nervous system is still maturing.
So I'm at least guaranteed to lose 5 lbs when I deliver this kid.

The doctor was Not Happy again with me. First he didn't like my weight gain. Then he didn't like my blood pressure (which was elevated because it was taken 2 minutes before I had to take my clothes off for the strep test). Then he didn't liky my belly band. So it was a peachy keen visit.

Darren came with me to hear the heartbeat. He stayed in the room for the strep test because he is a trooper.

I finished submitting all my forms to work that can be submitted before the baby is born. I'm just waiting to hear if my claim is approved. (I hope that's just a technicality).

I think I'm dropping. I don't want to drop yet. This baby can NOT come early because I will lose paid time off. On time is fine. Late is fine. Just not early. DO YOU HEAR ME BABY? STAY PUT FOR 6 MORE WEEKS!

Now would be a good time to start listening to your mother, baby...

Only 11 more days of work, and at least one of them is working from home.

Childbirth classes are over. This is a good thing, because they almost had me convinced that I was not going to have this baby. One more class and I would have completely decided to just keep it in me forever.

This is probably a rambling post, but since I don't sleep much, my brain doesn't work so well anymore. It's a wonder I can even make semi-coherent sentences.

I'm tired.

I'm hungry. I'm not allowed to eat any carbs. So I'm hungry.

I don't think the baby has a whole lot of room left in there. There are less and less kicks and more and more alien-type movements where my belly looks like a bowl of jello. A bowl of jello that is somehow moving of it's own accord.

I'm not even sure if the words I'm using make sense. That's how tired I am.

I think I dropped a little. Wait. Did I say that already? Yes. Oops. Sorry.

Obviously I have nothing else to say. What an extremely interesting post!

Posted by Terri at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2006

32 Weeks, 4 Days

I just got felt up in the bathroom. One of my coworkers comes up behind me and starts running her hand (around me) up and down my belly. So I turn around and ask what she's doing. She says she's feeling the baby. So I said, no you're feeling my stomach. She's not even a coworker I'm especially close to. Which lead to a discussion with our Staff Assistant (who is also pregnant) as to why people feel the need to cop a feel of pregnant women. The Staff Assistant is not even really showing yet, and people are going up to her and poking her stomach.

STOP TOUCHING US, PEOPLE! STOP!

Anyway, according to the baby ticker:

I’m nearly 17.2 inches tall & weigh a little over 4 lbs. My skin is less wrinkled looking.
No wonder my belly is so heavy.

Yeah, the belly is heavy, so I went yesterday with my good friend Vizma to buy a belly band. Belly bands are the best invention EVER. It's a heavy-duty elastic contraption that goes under my belly and around my back and supports the belly so my muscles don't get all stretched out of wack. It's like a bra for your belly.

I also got talked into buying these expensive (and SOOOOO comfortable) nursing bras. (Darren did say to spend whatever I needed to spend to be comfortable). Let me tell you, they are worth every penny. I am wearing one today, since they are nursing/maternity bras, and they are just so wonderful and supportive and comfortable. They're ugly as sin, but I've given up on fashion about 3 weeks ago - around the time I had to jump up and down to get my shoes to fit on my big fat feet.

Oh, and I decided - I'm not having this baby. It's just going to stay in me forever. Labor just isn't my thing so I'm not going to do it. I'll cross my legs or something. (All the childbirth classes have been good for is meeting nervous cops and having the bejezus scared out of me.)

That's all for now. Sixteen days left of work. Woo hoo!

Posted by Terri at 01:39 PM | Comments (1)

March 16, 2006

31 Weeks, 4 Days

I love coffee. Love love love love love love LOVE coffee.

That has nothing to do with the baby, but I'm drinking coffee and needed to share. (Decaf, of course).

Anyway, I went to the doctor again last night. I only gained 2 lbs! Woo Hoo! The doctor was happier with that, but he wants me to not gain anything or even lose weight by next time, because that would be losing water weight. He doesn't want me to change what I'm eating except have even less salt and more water.

You would not believe the amount of sodium in condiments:

Heinz Ketchup: 190mg per TBSP
Guldens Spicy Brown Mustard: 150mg per TBSP
French's Yellow Mustard: 165mg per TBSP
A1 Steak Sauce: 250mg per TBSP
Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce: 130mg per TBSP
Kraft BBQ Sauce: 230mg per TBSP
Unbelievable!

And this was the last of the nice doctor visits. From now on I have to take my clothes off. The very nice nurse was kind enough to warn me about it before hand so I not only can be properly prepared, but I also have two weeks to work up my propery tizzy about a pelvic exam. Yeah, I'm going to be fun in labor.

I'm feeling better than I did before. I think it's all the baby spinach salad and red meat I've been eating. Trying to keep that iron up. Or maybe it's the coffee. Yay coffee!

The second childbirth class was better than the first. The first one we learned about the first two stages of labor (knew about them already), we wrote down what we were worried about various things involved in labor (epidural, c-section, etc) and then we practiced breathing, which I do in yoga every week. (Darren was so helpful. He stared at me the same time and made me giggle through my "deep cleansing breath.")

This past Tuesday we got a lecture from a cop (who was very nervous, I thought, for a cop) about car seats. It was good because I learned that the cops in my town are certified carseat putter-inners. I also learned that although the nice police officer could not endorse any particular carseat, that he personally used a Greco travel system (which we're registered for) and a Britax car seat (which someone bought us off our registry). So that made me happy. He also told us that the travel systems were perfectly safe (which I was a little worried about).

We learned more about labor, the third (or cranky) phase and delivery. Part of me says it doesn't seem so bad. The other 99% of me says, "What are you frigging crazy? This baby is staying IN MY BELLY!!!"

We then got to tour the hospital maternity wing. It's nice, for the most part. I don't like the labor / delivery / recovery room. I felt dizzy when I was in there. (I didn't say anything to Darren, so when he's reading this he's going to be quite surprised.) The bed is small and the room just reeks of pain. I also felt very claustrophobic in there, but it could be because there were about 20 of us in there. The postpartum room
wasn't bad - I can't say it looked like a hotel room, even though they hid the medical stuff behind a picture on the wall - it still felt like a hospital room. At least it was private and the baby gets to stay with me as much or as little as I want. Oh, and there's a TV and DVD so I can watch my movies while I fall asleep.

That's what the labor / delivery / recovery room was missing - a TV! But we are allowed to bring a radio. You know Darren is going to be lugging a huge suitcase with all my crap into the hospital.

And here I would just like to put in a little plug that my husband is awesome. If you visit him at his website ever, tell him how awesome he is, because he has put up with me through all this and he's going to have to take all the mental, emotional and possibly physical abuse from me during labor because, as I said before, I'm not going to be a picnic during that. He cooks dinner when I am too tired to. He handled all the moving and house stuff because I was tired. He has done about 99% of the work on the house (which has been a lot) because I can't. He goes out of his way to try and make things easier on me, even though his workday is at least 2 hours longer than mine. He keeps encouraging me, and has heard me go on about how fat I am, how tired I am, how fat I am, how much the baby kicks, that the baby is not kicking and I'm worried, how fat I am, how my shoes don't fit, how fat I am, how tired I am, how obnoxious people are and how fat I am about a million times and has yet to tell me to shut up.

So tell him he's awesome.

Posted by Terri at 02:36 PM | Comments (1)

March 13, 2006

31 Weeks, 1 Day

Well, I'm officially 7 months pregnant, entering into my 8th month. According to the little baby ticker:

I’m nearly 4 lbs & 17 inches tall & soon I’ll be too big to move as much as I can now.
Thank goodness, because my insides are black and blue.

The stupid furniture isn't here yet. It's been 6 weeks and they told us 6 weeks, but when I called they said they were just cutting it now and we'd have it the end of the month. That is NOT what they told us when the furniture was bought.

The baby's room is just about done. The light actually goes on with the light switch now, which is a huge improvement in and of itself. The closet needs to be finished painting and we need to put up the organizer, but that's pretty minor. I still feel like we have a million things to do and buy, but at least we're making progress.

Twenty five more days (counting today) of work. Yay!

Doctor's appointment tomorrow. The scale and I face off again. If my weight has jumped up again, I'm just going to give up and sit on the couch and eat ice cream because it doesn't matter if I eat healthy or not, my weight continues to climb.

I'm too tired to think of anything else to write. I'm too tired to do pretty much anything these days.

Posted by Terri at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2006

30 Weeks, 1 Day

I'm so over being pregnant.

Why does everyone feel the need to point out that I'm "getting big." I'm not "getting big;" I passed through big a long time ago and now have reached what can only be described as "beached whale."

Also, why do people feel that it is completely appropriate to ask how much weight I've gained. Unless you're offering up your own weight, it's None Of Your Damn Business. You wouldn't walk up to a non-preganant woman and ask her what she weighed, would you. And if you would, you're just an idiot.

And stop touching my belly. I know it's there. I know it's big. Leave it the hell alone. I don't poke at your fat, do I? First of all, my skin is itchy, and when you pat my belly it makes it worse. Second of all, the baby doesn't like it. I swear, I'm going to start grabbing boobs. You touch my belly - I feel you up. Seems fair to me.

And I DO NOT "LOOK SO GOOD." So stop saying it. I'm in touch with reality. I own mirrors. I know how I look. Tell me I look tired. Tell me I look like I need a nap. Tell me I look ready to bite the head off the next person who looks at me sideways.

And I am coming back to work. So stop fricking telling me that having the baby will change my life and I'll stay home. Stop telling me about all the people that couldn't hack it being a working mom and cried every day until they decided to stay home. I realize the baby will change my life, but unless I decide that living on the street is better than being a homeowner and that I don't really need health insurance, my sorry ass is coming back to work. In September. Get over it.

God, I hate everyone.

EDIT: There are 69 days left.

Posted by Terri at 03:06 PM | Comments (3)

March 01, 2006

29 Weeks, 3 Days

Random Updates

Got the results from the glucose screen back. My glucose is perfect. (Yay) It has to be under 120 I think and mine was like 85. I asked about hypoglycemia and the nurse said it had to be much lower than that to be hypoglycemic. So yay. But the test also showed that I'm anemic. The good range is 12-16 and I'm 11.1. So I'm supposed to eat more red meat and green leafy vegetables.

The doctor was Not Happy with my weight, since, true to my word, I did not gain 6lbs in 2 weeks; I gained 9. Now, how it is physically possible for a person to gain 9lbs in 2 weeks is beyond my comprehension. I personally think a lot of it is water weight, since my ankles, hands, feet, arms, face, thighs and calves are all swollen. So in addition to eating more red and green (meat and veggies), I need to eat less salt and drink more water.

I'm over Coke. We had an ugly breakup. I blamed Coke for some of my weight gain. It wasn't pretty.

Heard the heartbeat again. Got kicked in the doppler again. It's losing some of its excitements since using the doppler to hear the heartbeat means the baby is still in my belly and this ordeal isn't over with yet.

Started childbirth classes at the hospital yesterday. This was the "early preganancy class." I was the furthest along by at least a month. (There was one girl in the class due in September). So I knew most of the stuff about nutrition and I had experienced most of the discomforts they warned about, but it was a nice refresher. I'm more interested in the next set of 5 weeks, since that will be dealing more with labor, which I'm most interested in/concerned with now.

Speaking of which, I heard about this thing called hypnobirth. The jury is still out on if this is worthwhile or way too "New Age" for me. I know hypnosis works, but I also know that if I'm the least bit skeptical about it, it won't work for me. If anybody has had hypnobirth or knows anybody who has, let me know so I can ask them lots of questions to see if it is worth my time to try it. I'm sure it works for some people, I just have to figure out if it will work for me.

Decided not to do a birth plan. I'm thinking about doing a list of "birth preferences" instead, which are more flexible than a signed birth plan. As in "During my labor/delivery, I would like to be able to listen to music." (etc). This will probably also help Darren in being my advocate if I am in too much pain to stick up for my own preferences.

I dream about labor every night. Every. Night. And can you blame me? There are only 74 days left!

That's all I can think of for now. More updates when my brain is less tired.

Posted by Terri at 10:25 AM | Comments (1)