Birth.

So this post might border on the TMI side, but I'd like to write it out just for me, even if no one wants to read it.

The last pregnant shot at home.

 Our induction appointment was at 1:00 AM on Tuesday, October 26th, 2010.  I slept about an hour on Monday night, then got up to shower and call to confirm the appointment at midnight.  They said to come in about 1:15 and they could take me.  Robert and I head to the hospital.

At the hospital.

We get shown to my labor and delivery room.  Robert realizes he’s left his cell phone at the house so he runs back to get it as I sit there and wait for a nurse to come in.  Two nurses come in, take some medical history, draw blood, and start IV fluids.  I also get hooked up to two monitors – one to track contractions and one to monitor Baby’s heartbeat.  They check me – baby is at -2 station and I’m barely a fingertip dilated and 50% effaced.  The nurses disappear to go get doctor’s orders on what they should do to start the induction.  An hour later (did they forget about me?), I page the nurses’ station to find out how to pee with all these things hooked up to me.  A nurse comes right in and says we’ll start with Cervidil, a prostaglandin to help get my cervix ready for Pitocin in the morning.  It’s a little before 5:00 AM by the time this happens.  I’m not allowed to eat, drink, or get up for an hour, so Robert and I shut our eyes and sleep a little.

A little before 6:00, I wake up with these weird periodic urges to pee, and I realize that they’re mild contractions.  I hang out with these very mild contractions until my OB comes by a little after 8:00.  She checks me – Baby’s still at -2, I’m about 80% effaced, and dilated just a smidgen more but not much.  She decides to check in with me at lunchtime.  Robert and I play Trivial Pursuit and read a bit while the contractions get stronger.  They’re regular – about two to three minutes apart – and slowly getting stronger. 

Contractions are to the point where I give a few really dumb answers to Trivial Pursuit questions and decide to just rest in bed.  We pop in a DVD.  About 12:30 PM, the doctor comes back in.  Since I haven’t made much progress, she decides to take out the Cervidil and see what happens, with the plan being to break my water that afternoon.  So, the Cervidil comes out (what weird stuff that is!) and I shut my eyes for some rest.  The contractions stay pretty much the same, but gradually decrease in intensity over the next few hours. 

At 3:30 PM, I request an epidural, not so much because the contractions are too much to handle, but because the OB and the nurse both said I’d definitely want one before my water gets broken, and the OB was planning to come back around 4:00.  Right away, the anesthesiologist comes in, wheeling his cart full of magic.  I sit on the edge of the bed while he numbs the area, inserts the needle, then inserts the epidural tube thingie itself.  Robert watches this whole process with interest (although the nurse did make him sit to watch it – “hospital protocol”).  Since I can’t see what’s going on, I’m convinced that there’s a tube the size of a straw sticking out straight out of my back.  I’m assured this isn’t the case but I’m still kind of uncomfortable with the idea.  I change my mind pretty quickly when I can see the contractions on the monitor but can’t feel them in the least.  Magical.  My right leg is totally numb and floppy, but I can still feel and move my left a little.

As promised, the OB comes by a little after 4:00 to break my water.  She says, oddly, that I’m dilated to about 3 cm on the inside of my cervix but only about a cm or two on the outside.  Again, not being able to see this, the picture in my mind is pretty weird.  She strips my membranes, the immediately after, sticks what Robert described as a chopstick into my cervix and breaks my water.  Very strange sensation, and the nurse chided her for making a mess (I must have missed the class on how one’s water can break and not make a mess).  They start Pitocin, my OB tells me who’s on call for the night, and she wishes me luck.  For the next several hours, I doze while the Pitocin and contractions do their thing.  Robert heads home to let the dog out. 

When he comes back between 7:00 and 8:00, the evening nurse shift has started.  Every half hour or so, my nurse comes in to help me flip over and up the Pitocin, but in between, Robert and I chat a little and I doze.  Around 9:00 or 9:30, the nurse comes in and says that Baby’s heartbeat is dipping with each contraction.  She inserts an intrauterine contraction monitor and we start to shift me around to get Baby more comfortable.  After a few failed attempts, the nurse has me get on my hands and knees, which was a little comical since I still had absolutely no feeling in or control of my right leg and minimal in my left.  I’m in this position for about 20 minutes.  I puke.  (I was very concerned about this only because I had snuck a granola bar earlier in the day after I was told I couldn’t eat any more.)  Finally, I get back on my side and Baby does well through the next few contractions.  The nurse checks me a little after 10:00 and I’m 80% effaced and 4 or 5 cm dilated.  She tells me to call her if I start to feel the urge to push with any of my contractions. 

I start to feel this, which actually felt more like, “Omg Baby’s head is pushing its way out!” through an epidural haze, almost immediately but figure it’s just the power of suggestion.  Robert steps out to go get some food before the concession stand closes.  But, about ten minutes later, I realize I can accurately tell whether or not I’m contracting based just on this sensation, so I give the nurse a call.  She checks me and says, “Wow – you’re ready!  Let’s have a baby!”  Robert walks back into the room when she’s fussing around getting ready for delivery.  I’m kind of in shock and kind of don’t believe what’s going on, since labor had gone so slowly up until this point.

The nurses shift around and I get a new nurse for the pushing part.  Mostly I remember her bustling around with monitors, catheters, and other medical things, and telling me to push through my contractions.  I’m afraid to push too hard when she’s not right there because I’m oddly afraid that my baby will just pop out with no one there to catch it.  I’m also afraid to push too hard because I don’t want to poop or fart in her face.  I figure I can reserve the “all-out effort” pushing and only bust that out if I really need it. 

The pushing starts a little after 11:00, and after pushing through a handful of contractions, apparently the baby is crowning.  Robert gets a glimpse of this and his eyes get huge.  I think it finally hit him right then that there was actually a baby in there.  The nurse calls the on-call OB, and I push another handful of times.  I never wanted to see the actual birth, but I find myself thankful that I can sort of see a reflection of what’s going on in the OB’s glasses (seriously, the OB suited up like I was going to explode all over her – not especially reassuring).  I see the baby’s head crowning and I realize how close we really are.  It may have been more but it felt like only a half-dozen pushes with the OB there before I could see the top half of Baby’s face.  One final extra-long push, and at 11:49 PM, Baby is wrenched from my body.  Once her head was out, her shoulders and the rest of her just slipped out.  She didn’t breathe right away (no one else seemed concerned) and I had a moment of panic.  Then she started to cry.

Lia is placed on my stomach and my world just sort of stops.  People are talking – I’m pretty sure they asked me what her name was – and I just couldn’t care enough to listen to them, much less answer.  I’m just staring at this tiny person.  I pull her up on my chest as much as possible while some other stuff happened in the room.  I’m terrified of hurting her or breaking her so I just kind of watch her.

Robert cut the umbilical cord at some point, and then it’s kind of a blur after that.  The nurses took the baby to the other side of the room to do some stuff to/with her.  Robert went to watch that and I watched him watch them while the OB did some other stuff to me down there (like delivering the placenta and stitching me up (first degree tear – not too shabby!)).  Lia got cleaned up and brought back to me.   I’m crying a bit – overwhelmed and still a little in shock.  The nurse takes some pictures, Robert calls and texts some family, and we hang out a little waiting for the in-laws to get to the hospital and for the epidural to wear off.  It’s all pretty anti-climactic from there.  

~~~

Well between Baby and family, that took me all day to write.   I’ve already forgotten a few things about the day so I’m glad to get it down on paper now before it fades even more.  Overall, it went really well.  At the very beginning of my pregnancy I was all about a totally non-medicated, no-intervention birth, which is obviously not what I ended up with, but it was totally fine.  My body did well, I’m healing remarkably well, at least compared to what I thought it was going to be like, and ultimately I don’t regret going down the path that I did.

           

Whew.

Well it's been an eventful... what?  48 hours since we went home from the hospital.  Well, not eventful by normal-people standards, but eventful for us!  I even had a blog post all written out after our first night home but got called away by Lia and literally didn't make it back to the computer to hit "Post" until now, a day later.  It feels a little obsolete now so I'll just sum things up.

First night home was rough.  Robert can't really help much at night since he can't feed Lia, so we decided to have him sleep the night through so he could be more useful during the day.  So the night was up to me.  I think I was exhausted and dehydrated, because it seemed like I just couldn't produce anything for Lia to eat.  She had been a good little eater up until the 10:00 pm feeding, and I just could not get her to settle down afterwards, plus it had been almost ten hours since her last wet or dirty diaper.  She was acting hungry and finally at 12:30, I caved in and gave her some formula.  It's funny, it literally felt like the end of the world at the time.  It feels like there's a sort of cultural undercurrent for moms nowadays, where "good" moms only exclusively breastfeed their babies, and if you don't, it's because you didn't try hard enough or care enough about your child or something.  (Maybe I'm projecting or overreacting - I don't feel that way but I do feel like there's a lot of judgment out there.  Maybe I'm wrong.)  It felt like I was failing as a mother - my very first night at home with my baby - by caving in and giving her formula.

But you know what?  After almost three hours of fussing, she gobbled up a bottle, went right to sleep, slept four hours straight, and pooped and peed before her next feeding.  It was so obviously the right call.  Thankfully, one of the pediatricians I talked to in the hospital said to me, "There are a lot of rules out there and a lot of opinions on feeding, but as long as your baby is getting fed, you're doing the right thing."  I'm so glad someone said that to me and I'm so glad I'm starting to learn that lesson sooner rather than later in this process.

Since then, things have been going swimmingly, actually.  My milk is in, and Lia is clearly getting what she needs from me now.  She still has nights and days mixed up - she's an angel in the morning, sleeping right through until the afternoon, then fusses in the evening and most of the night.  But we're managing.  The nights are just long.  We saw the pediatrician this morning for a weight check, and she's down an ounce from her discharge weight but no one is worried.  My mom and dad also got in town today.  My dad is just in for the weekend, but my mom is staying for two weeks to give me a chance to get some sleep during the day.  It's tough for me to sleep unless I know someone else is actively watching Lia, so having another set of hands and eyes watching her should give me some peace of mind.

On the way to the doctor's this morning!

YAWN!

Where am I again?

I'm trying to catch up on life online but I'll probably be really sporadic for awhile.  And, it's pretty clear that this blog is going to turn into a "Newborn Parenting" stream of consciousness blog, so my apologies for those who just don't care about this sort of thing.  (I don't blame you - I didn't until a week ago!)

Julia Maslen

Thank you so much for all the well-wishes, especially from Sara and everyone else who headed over here from her blog!  We didn't have internet in the hospital so this is my first chance to post anything.

One day old

1.5 days old - the eyes are finally open!

Holy cow have you ever seen a cuter baby?

Finally going home!

My induction appointment was at 1:00 AM Tuesday.  She was finally born at 11:49 PM on Tuesday.  I really want to write and post a timeline/birth story, and I will give all ya'll the gory details then.  But we both came out of it just fine (I've been surprised at how well I'm holding up - I think I took too much stock in everyone's birth horror stories!) - although I'm definitely running on fumes at the moment - and now we're all trying to get adjusted to life as a family of 4 (yes I count the dog). 

We both just liked the name Julia, and Maslen is an old French name that means "little Thomas," which is my dad's name.  He's been a phenomenal father to three daughters and I really wanted my child to honor him and carry on his name.  We've been calling her Lia throughout the pregnancy but we're not sure whether Julia or Lia will stick.  Either way.  She's the most beautiful baby ever born and we can't stop looking at her.  :)

Will post more when I get back on my feet a little. 

The calm (?) before the storm

It's twenty after eleven, and I'm taking a few minutes in the middle of our crazy night to be quiet and type a bit.  Right now, the plan is to call L&D at midnight, make sure they still have room for me, and go in for a 1:00 am appointment (it just seems wrong to call anything at 1:00 am an "appointment") to get the induction started.  I have no idea what they'll do once I get there, which is a little unnerving.  But, truth be told, kind of far down on my radar screen right now of things that unnerve me.

First of all - I'm going to push a what out of my whaaaaa?!  I've successfully avoided thinking about this part of baby-makin' up for the past nine months but it's kind of staring me in the face right now.  Wtf.  Who designed this process, exactly?  Not pleased, but maybe I can avoid thinking about this a little longer - what's another few hours after nine months of denial?

Second - I'm going to be a mother?!  We were at the mall tonight and R and I both picked up birthday cards for our daughter.  My dad wrote me a card when I was in the hospital and it was so sweet and neat to have that growing up that we're both going to do the same thing for Nuggette.  I pretty much started bawling the moment I walked in to Hallmark.  This is hitting me all sorts of weird ways but none of them are how I anticipated.  I'm in total denial, I love her, I'm not so sure - I don't know her, I'm terrified, I'm excited, I'm totally confused, and I don't know what to think.  I'm going to shelve all this if I can until I can actually look at her little face in the hopes that things will make more sense then.

Third - I hope things go okay.  I hope she's healthy (we opted for the minimal amount of prenatal screening because we knew we wouldn't do anything differently if she weren't "healthy" - now I kind of regret that because it'd be nice to be prepared if something's abnormal).  I hope Nuggette and I get through the process okay.  I hope R still likes me at the end of it all, after watching me pretty much lose all my dignity in the birthing process.  I hope R is okay throughout this; I can't imagine being on his side of the fence and having -let's face it - such a passive role in such a monumental family moment.  I hope the dog is okay being alone for two days.  I hope the glider still comes in on Wednesday and R is able to pick it up before we get home.  I hope I packed the right clothing for all of us.  I hope other people like the name.  I hope I still like her name.  I hope I'm not forgetting anything....  Since I've pushed Points First and Second out of my brain, it's pretty much filled up with this.

It's time to head off to dry my hair (of course I want to blow dry my hair for a 1:00 am appointment at L&D duh), pack and clean a little more, and fret a lot more.  Will update when there's something worth updating about.  :)  Wish us luck!

Update:  Just talked to L&D - we're a go!  (Ahhh!)

4 am musings

I guess my body's getting ready for all the future nighttime feedings, because I've gone from a "hit the pillow at 11 and out like a rock til the alarm goes off" person to a serial nighttime napper. 

After talking to Robert and my sister (an ob/gyn nurse practitioner) yesterday, it became pretty clear that inducing is the right choice for me right now.  I already regret not being able to experience labor naturally, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll happen by itself some time today, but if not (and still no signs that it might), I'll be giving L&D a call at midnight tonight and hopefully going in shortly after to begin the process.  Robert pointed out that I'm miserable, and that my dad's schedule necessitates that she get here fairly soon or else he won't get a chance to see her for several more weeks.  My sister essentially said it's ridiculous for me to wait out of some sense of guilt ("You're being very Catholic, Jessica" - lol!) when the baby is past her due date - that she's done and ready and whether she gets here because I go naturally or because I get induced doesn't matter in the least. 

So, today is my last day pregnant (for awhile at least!) and my last chance to get stuff done before she arrives.  I think it's the first time all pregnancy that I've felt sentimental about being pregnant and carrying this child inside of me.  I'm going to miss the combination of the relative freedom and independence I have now and the feeling of having our baby constantly connected to me in the most intimate way possible.  I'm usually pretty bad with change (see: selling car) so I'm not surprised I feel this way, suddenly, just now that it's almost over, but I am surprised at how I'm way more excited about having the baby than I am regretful that it's almost over. 

I'll be running around today getting a few last-minute things done but since we've been anticipating her arrival for awhile now, we're in pretty good shape.  (I even spent several hours cleaning the basement yesterday (wtf?), which I'm super-proud about because it no longer looks like we belong on Hoarders.)  So, today holds just a few errands, maybe a mani/pedi, some final housecleaning, and some quality time with the dog and hubby.  I'm kind of excited.

3:00 am musings...

It's 3:00 am Sunday morning.  I'm awake because I had to get up to pee for the umpteenth time and couldn't get back to sleep.  Like pretty much all of the last several days, I thought I'd be in labor by now.  Last night I pulled out not all, but a lot, of the stops - eggplant, a small glass of red wine, exercise, and it's stormy which my parents swear brings on babies because of the drop in pressure.  She was SO active last night - moving around like crazy and kicking off a few contractions in the process - that I thought for sure she'd pop that water and we could pack up and head to the hospital.  But, obviously, nothing.  I did dream about her.  True to my life experiences thus far, I dreamt I had her, promptly put her in her crib where she stayed for the duration of my dream, and went out to a bar in Florida with Robert.  Then I dreamt I slept on my stomach and my body started to go back to normal, which was awesome.

I guess I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that giving birth means I'm going to have a baby.  It's not just a means to the end of me getting my body back and beginning the slow process of feeling comfortable in my skin again.  Part of me is beating myself up for being so selfish about this whole giving-birth thing (really - who wants to give birth because they're excited to have a bigass glass of wine?!), then the other part of me realizes I can't fathom what it means to have a baby because I've just never experienced it before.  I chide Robert for thinking this way - I'm convinced he hasn't fully wrapped his mind around this concept either - but I know I'm the same way deep down.  Maybe this is just a really clever tumor and not a little live person.  That actually makes more sense to my gut right now.

And then I think about it a bit and run into a billion questions along the lines of - "How on earth am I going to take care of her?" and "You mean I'm going to be responsible for this creature for the rest of my life?"  I have carried her for nine months and I still don't see "mom" as part of my identity at all.  I'm definitely not one of those people who always wanted children and always pictured themselves as mothers.  If it were entirely up to me, I probably wouldn't be pregnant right now.  Not to say this wasn't a joint decision, but it was pretty practical on my end ("Robert wants kids for sure, now's a relatively good time, career-wise, for me to do this, and we're not getting any younger...") and definitely not motivated by some visceral maternal drive.  I know I'm certainly not the first person to feel this way and have a baby, and I do believe what everyone tells me - that things are different once the baby actually gets here.  But I'm apprehensive, to say the least.

And then there are the induction fears: I'm slowly but surely wrapping my mind around the distinct possibility that I won't have gone in to labor by Tuesday morning so I need to make a final decision on this induction.  (My mind is doing a lot of wrapping lately.)

• Cons: (1) Induced labors tend to be longer, more painful, and more likely to end up requiring further medical interventions.  (2) I'll probably end up with an epidural either way, but if I get induced I'm pretty much guaranteeing one.  (3) I'd also sort of like to experience labor starting on its own.  I'm curious about how it will feel, what will happen, and what my body will do.  (4) I keep reading that first-time babies are, on average, born eight days past their due date.  I've had such a textbook pregnancy so far that I'm wondering if I should just stick it out a few more days and give her a chance to finish cooking on her own, if that's the more normal, natural way to go.  (5) Every day she's in there is a day she gets more mature and more able to handle the bumps of life outside. (6) And, isn't it selfish of me to evict her just because I want to?  Is that any way to kick off our mother-daughter relationship?
• Pros: (1) I'm in physical pain.  My pelvis is killing me, and it's getting significantly worse each day.  I have trouble rolling over in bed, going from sitting to standing and back again, walking, getting in and out of a car, using stairs, and anything else that requires movement.  (2) I'm also mentally desperate for this pregnancy to be over.  I've stuck it out a solid 40 weeks plus, given my baby the best growing environment I was able to provide, and I'm practically climbing out of my skin at this point.  Gaining all this weight and watching helplessly as my body went through these radical changes in the past nine ten months has been incredibly hard on me mentally (not to mention doing without my go-to mental/emotional crutches - a glass of wine at the end of the day) and it feels like each day now I'm closer than I thought possible to snapping.  (Not sure what "snapping" entails though - probably just having a crying fit and buying a family pack of delectably-frosted cupcakes.)  (Mmmmm that last part might have to happen anyways...)  I felt really reassured yesterday when I called the hospital to get instructions for the induction.  At the least, I'll be on my way to having a baby by Tuesday - whew.  (3) My doctor is fine with the induction - she was the one who suggested it, and she suggested scheduling it for two days earlier than I actually scheduled it.  (4) I'll be one day shy of 41 weeks, which isn't exactly like I'm scheduling it early for convenience, and I'm positive my due date is accurate.  (5) My mother had to be induced with me because her water broke and she didn't start contracting - what's the point of waiting for my water to break if I'm going to follow in her footsteps and get induced anyways?  (6) My parents are making airplane reservations to come up next weekend to visit their first granddaughter and it would suck royally for her to not be here then.

End result?  I'm still not sure.  I still can't get over the fact that essentially all the reasons I want to induce are selfish, and there are some compelling points on the Cons list.  Anyone can do anything for a few more days.  It's not like I won't eventually have this baby, one way or another.  I need to talk this one out with Robert some more I guess.  Or maybe go back to bed and sleep on it some more.

No, no baby. Part 16.

No.  No baby yet.  Nothing. 

That's all.

Wearing my crankypants

No, the reason I didn't post yesterday was not because I was busy having a baby.  I'm only three days late now but I'm so cranky and angry about it that I'm not sure how much longer I can go.  I've had pelvic joint pain through about the last half of the pregnancy, but these last few days it seems to be getting exponentially worse.  It feels like someone hit me in the crotch with a baseball bat, and nothing seems to be helping - rest makes it hurt more in the short-term, activity makes it hurt more in the long-term.  My head is getting stuffy too.  I'm not sure whether it's allergies or I'm getting sick, but the net result is that I'm just a worthless, crabby lump.  I know I'm only three days late and people go much later, and I feel like I should be handling this with grace and be thankful that my baby is still contentedly cooking and healthy inside me, but mostly I can't help but be irrationally angry - at me, at R, at my baby, and at everyone who has ever had a baby early or exactly on time.  I still don't like the idea of getting induced but now I'm so thankful I have that appointment on Tuesday.

Robert, on the other hand, has been a rock star dealing with me, and I'm so lucky to have him listening patiently to me, singing our "Get out Baby" song to my belly, and picking up the slack around the house.

And, because this makes my heart happy, here's some pics of R and Scrappy playing in the backyard yesterday:

Running around

Scratch the tummy break

"Oh but I'm tired now!"

"Yes scratch my tum some more!"

"I'm intrigued."

"But I'd rather just lay here with it."

Aww isn't my little family cute?!

No baby yet.

No baby yet.  No real contractions (although this might be good since I think I might go crazy if they were to start up only to stop again), no nothing.  Scrappy and I had a lovely walk this morning and then I pretty much vegged out for the rest of the day.  We've had the most gorgeous weather here these past few weeks, and it's really nice to live so close to a park with so many trails.  I'm glad I can take advantage of it, although the hills are rough.  I cannot WAIT to go walking/running/hiking again and feel normal while doing it.  This pregnancy has been an uphill battle - despite remaining fairly active, I just feel more and more out of shape every day.  Working out is supposed to get easier, not harder, the more you do it!  I wish I had taken some pictures of the walk this morning.  I'm planning to take the dog to the park again tomorrow morning so I'll bring my camera next time.

Due Date

So today is my due date.  I wasn't actually expecting to have her today, so I'm not really disappointed, mentally.  Physically is another story - I feel like I've hit a wall.  She's big, she's active, and I am heavy, huge, and awkward.  I won't bitch because I know everyone feels like this at this point, but I am just done.

Anyways, here is the new study/guest room.  This used to be my study, but once I was done with law school, I really didn't need a whole room for my computer and stuff.

Before.  I wish I had some photos of the study with all the furniture in it but I didn't have that much foresight.  Instead I have photos of an empty room with a bajillion different paint colors on the walls.  I must have bought a dozen different tester pints before I finally settled on the paint colors.  So frustrating but worth it because I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I'm not a huge fan of daybeds but it was really a good solution for us.  There's a pop-up trundle underneath, and I got nice mattresses and mattress pads, so hopefully visitors will be comfortable.  We just didn't have room for anything more.  The closet is to the right (I'm a big fan of the curtains-for-closet-doors-thing).  The lamp is very college dorm room, but at this point we're reluctant to spend any more money on things that aren't necessities.  Someday I'd like to put a spine-style bookshelf back there, with a brushed nickel arc lamp to shed light over the bed.  I'm also in love with the blinds.  We never had anything in here, and I went ahead and ordered custom wooden blinds for the window.  I'm SO happy I did.  I'm going to put the same thing in our bedroom once our bank account recovers.

I bought these paintings from a street painter in Florence, when I spent a summer in Siena.  In my junior year of college.  And I just now got them framed.  It felt really good to put them up on the wall.  I love the paintings themselves, I just didn't have anywhere to put them until now.  I think "frame Italy paintings" has been on my to-do list for the past eight years.  That's got to be a record.

My "study" corner.  Mostly full of electronics.

 

Same thing, I just really like the overhead fan/light so I wanted to include a pic of that too.

Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out.  I wish I had more storage space, because a lot of stuff that used to be in this room is now living in the basement, but I've got the essentials and I think our guests will still have plenty of room.

And now it's time for me to head to bed and pray my water breaks in the middle of the night! 

Nothing new.

Nope, nothing new going on.  Ran errands today and picked up the house.  We're in pretty good shape, so if Baby wants to come anytime, she can and should.  I still have plenty of stuff on my "would like to do someday" list so I'm not exactly sitting around with my feet up, but the essentials are taken care of.  The nursery is done except for the glider, which I found out today will ship tomorrow (after two weeks of "it'll be here next week," I finally got the information from the retailer so I can just call the factory myself).  Not sure when it will actually arrive, and I've been holding off on calling the nursery "done" until it does, but I probably ought to go ahead and take my After photos now while I have the time.  Oh heck, why don't I just do that right now?

...

So here are the Before Photos.  This used to be my extra closet the guest room.

Here's an intermediate shot, after we got a contractor to come in, put in the super-high chair rail, paint, and hang the boring ol' chandelier:

And, here it is now.  Minus a glider, plus a bassinet.  So just picture something similar to this (but a white frame) -

instead of the bassinet.  It'll be going in the same place.

Crib and one corner.  I made a stencil and painted on all those damn flowers on the wall, then added a few fabric ones for accents (which are hard to see in the photo but cute in person).

The mobile I made.  I couldn't find ANYTHING I liked so I buckled down and made one to suit me.  I wrapped sticks with pink ribbon, wove in the flowers, hot glued it all together, and painted paper maché Christmas ornaments for the hanging part.  I made 9 other ornaments, all different colors and a few different shapes, but we're starting out with the black and white since that's supposedly all that babies can make out at first.

Dresser.

Corner.

Other side of dresser w/ toy chest and adorable little hoodie towel.  I seriously love those things - the hoodie towels.  Could you come up with anything more adorable?  I'm going to put Baby in one every day and take a billion pictures every time. 

The unfinished part.  I'm ordering another curtain (why I thought only one would work, I have no idea) and a lampshade tomorrow.  I bought the table unfinished and painted it the same color as the upper part of the walls.  And, as we've been over, replace the bassinet with a glider.

Closet - "closed."

Closet - "open."  We used the Elfa shelving system from the Container Store, which actually worked out beautifully and was incredibly easy to order and install.  Then I bought a billion hot pink baskets and put all her stuff in those.

And I spruced up the chandelier.  I do NOT recommend hanging the chandelier first, then trying to add a ton of beads.  Eh well, live and learn.  Although I think I overpaid for the base chandelier itself, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

Lots of crafy stuff going on in there - for me at least.  I really had fun putting it all together, and it was definitely a luxury to be able to spend as much time on it as I did.  I also "remodeled" the new guest room, which used to be my study, and I'll do Before/After photos of that tomorrow since it's not nearly as fun as the nursery.  :)

Now I'm just waiting on a glider.  And a baby.  Tomorrow's my official due date.  Get here Baby!

The end of an era...

So I took a brief hiatus from posting because I've basically been obsessed with this, but I didn't want to jinx it and it's been several days in the works --> I finally sold my car today.  It had been on the market for about 3 months, which isn't terrible for a used car that's on the expensive side, but I was really starting to stress.  Our bank account has been leaking baby much more quickly than I anticipated, so it's a huge relief to (1) not have an extra car hanging around the house, and (2) have the money in our pocket.

Although I'm relieved, I'm also terribly sad.  This car was my baby.  I honestly never thought I'd sell her; I'd drive her until she fell apart and then I'd buy another one exactly like her.  I got her pretty much exactly 8 years ago and we've been through a lot together.  I get inappropriately sentimental about inanimate objects, so parting was really rough.  Lot of memories in that car.  *tear*  (Of course I cry at everything nowadays so who knows how much of this is normal versus raging hormones.)

 

I also had my final doctor's appointment this morning.  No change from last week, or the week before that, or the week.... We set up an induction for next Tuesday just so I have a slot on the calendar, even though I'm still not totally sold on inducing.  So, I'm really really hoping this baby decides to come before then.  I guess I need to get started on all the things that those old wives' tales say will induce labor!

So my awesome friend Sara came over this evening and helped me with the baby announcements I'm making.  I'm doing a handful of homemade ones for family and then ordering the majority of them from Shutterfly.  A friend of ours got hers done by Shutterfly and they turned out really nicely, so that's the plan.  BUT, I read somewhere that one should address all the birth announcements before the baby actually comes, to cut down on the amount of work to do after the birth.  Well, you can't get the envelopes ahead of time from Shutterfly, so I turned that little piece of advice on its head and created more work for myself by deciding to make some of my own announcements so I could address those ahead of time.  Anyways, Sara was very helpful, we did lots of cutting, and I totally have a plan now for the rest.  It's the perfect type of plan - the kind that can be executed in front of the tv - so I'll be getting right on it first thing tomorrow.  :)

Robert punk'ing Scraps with all her toys (does it count as a punk'ing if she's awake and aware of what's going on?):

 

I'm a little worried about this dog.  We went for a long walk this morning - almost an hour - and a super-short one around the block this evening, and she was still bouncing off the walls before bedtime.  I don't know how well she's going to do when I'm out of commission after giving birth and her walks are drastically shortened.  She's two, so she should be a little bit slower than when we got her almost a year ago, but her energy level is just still so high.  When we try to cut down on her walks to accommodate our schedules, she gets so badly behaved that we I always end up caving in and upping her walk lengths again.  I don't know if she just flat-out needs all the active time or if we could get her used to a lower activity level by sticking out her bad behavior until she adjusts.

In other news, I found a baby monitor for us today, got a few more miscellaneous baby supplies, nothing big, and attempted to get the house clean.  Keeping my fingers crossed that the glider comes in tomorrow so I can pick it up and finally get the nursery DONE.  Entering the home stretch here now!

I AM NOT CRANKY

I have had more than one person close to me insinuate that I'm hormonal and cranky lately.  Well, for your information, I'm not.  I'm carrying a bowling ball strapped to my stomach with my abs, I'm exhausted, and I'm stressed (freaked) about the prospect of pushing this bowling ball out of me and then caring for it for the rest of my life.  But I'm doing just fine thankyouverymuch. 

Not cranky at all.

I need to shout-out to my two followers, Sara and Robert!  I follow a few blogs but almost never post comments, thinking that these people surely have people they like and know better who comment on their blogs and why on earth would they want to read a comment from me?  But, now I'm like, overjoyed to see Sara commenting on my posts (I will not mention how many times I checked today to see if anyone commented) so I need to rethink my position and start commenting more!

Nothing much of interest happened today.  I bought an office chair on super-clearance and a guy came out to clear a blockage in our laundry room drain.  It's days like these - when the drain guy being on time and under budget is the highlight of the day - that I really miss working.  Even on the really crappy work days, at least I pulled in a salary and I could go to bed at night thinking that I did something worthwhile with the day.  I was just too beat today to be as productive as I wanted to be, so I'm hoping tomorrow brings a burst of energy. 

In nursery news, I finally put batteries in the swing we got for the baby.  It is LOUD.  The motor is incredibly creaky - the motor is way louder than the "soothing" noises that the swing plays so it's really annoying.  I keep reading reviews that talk about how quiet this swing is, so I feel like we got a defective one.  Unfortunately, we received it at our shower months ago and I'm sure I don't have the receipt any more - I think I even threw out the packaging already.  Not looking forward to fighting it out with Fisher Price on the phone tomorrow.

Cool story Jess.  ....I think I need a life.

Just another Monday...

I had my 39-week OB appointment today.  No change from before, no indication that I'll go in to labor anytime soon.  On one hand, this is okay, since I feel relatively good and she's pretty quiet and convenient staying in my stomach.  I'm not going to lie and say I'm not enjoying a little bit of time on the couch in front of the tv each day.  On the other hand, I'm pretty done being pregnant.  I'm ready to have my body back - to sleep on my stomach, stretch out my back, and have a glass of wine...or two.  Or three.  My OB said she'd schedule an induction as early as two Mondays from now, when I'd be 40 weeks, 5 days, which is on the early side.  But she'll let me go up to two weeks late if I want, so it'll be up to me at that point.  I really hope I don't have to make that decision.  I'd much rather go naturally but it's going to be tough turning down an induction.  We'll see.  For now, I'm counting this as my last full week baby-less, so I'm trying to finish up my to-do list and get the house somewhat clean.  The nursery is waiting on a glider and a few miscellaneous things but it's mostly there.  I have meals in the freezer, I'm almost totally caught up on laundry, the cleaning lady comes on Thursday and the dog is getting groomed on Friday.  But, I also have a ton of paperwork/household finance work to get in order, and our basement still looks like it should be on an episode of Hoarders.  Fortunately, tomorrow I have a massage first thing in the morning to really get the ball rolling on my to-do list.  :P

Here's the world's most awesome dog (next to the pictures I've been meaning to hang on the wall for a week now):

Well, of course there is other stuff going on now but I can't imagine anyone on the interwebz wants to read about the minutia in my life.  Maybe I need to find a theme for this blog...

So I think of things I want to write about all day long, and then I sit down and hit "New Post" and can't think of a thing.  This weekend was pretty lazy; I had a to-do list a mile long and didn't do very much of it.  R and I did have a lovely Date Night on Saturday night, thinking it's probably not, but possibly, our last Date Night before Baby comes.  We went out to dinner, I got my belated anniversary present (love it!  R reset the diamond in my engagement ring), and we were lame and ran a few errands before remembering that we needed to feed the dog and heading back home.

Here's the only not-terribly-unflattering photo we took that night:

I am dismayed at how huge I am, but I'm trying to cut myself a break since I'm nine and a half months pregnant and all.

And here's a photo of my two favorite people from earlier in the week (R is not drunk, just tired!):

Isn't my dog the best?!  We think she's an Australian Cattle Dog mix, probably with some shepherd.  We don't know where those giant ears come from though!  We adopted her from the Humane Society days before we found out I was pregnant, and she's been awesome ever since.  She's a bit high-energy, but she keeps us active.  She's smart, independent, and she totally loves Robert more than me.  We spent some special Sunday time napping in bed together today and I loved it.  I can't wait to add Baby to the Sunday Football/Nap Mix!

And I'm going to make sure I know how to post photos.  Everyone loves a post with photos, we all know it.  So, here are a few of my maternity photos, taken several weeks ago by the lovely Caroline Nelson:

The cutie in the pictures is my husband, Robert.