Due Month!

When I got into work this morning, I realized that it was time to flip my calendar from April to May! It's strange to see "Due Date" on the page that is currently opened on my desk. Strange, exciting, and slightly nerve-racking. My mom is arriving in about 2 weeks, and my ultrasound to determine the baby's approximate birthweight is the scheduled for the same day, and we have our Las Vegas baby shower coming up! Also, next monday, I'll officially be full-term, although some websites/books say that I am full term right now.

This weekend, Brian had both Saturday and Sunday off, which is a rare treat. We initially wanted to do a real overnight getaway somewhere in the area, but we decided against it at the last minute. Instead, we planned an afternoon at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. It is essentially the site of the now-dried-up Las Vegas springs, which was the pre-Hoover dam water source which attracted the early Las Vegas settlers. The "springs" portion is now a retention pond, but there is still a fair amount of wildlife surrounding it. We did the entire 1.6 mile loop of hiking trails (also known as waddling trails, for some of us), saw a bunch of lizards and what looked like desert chipmunks. There were also some gardens which were advertized as "botanic", but they were a bit disappointing. There is  also a little museum and wildlife show, but these were mostly geared towards children. We are starting to learn that all museums or educational exhibitions in the Las Vegas area are geared towards children, which is disappointing when you come from a city like Chicago and are used to the Field, Science and Industry, etc. Overall, it was very nice and we both agreed that we would buy a family membership next summer, when our little one will be walking!

Sunday, I had another case of 'nesting', feeling the need for have every surface of the apartment cleaned, all laundry done, and making the executive decision of no-more-dogs-with-long-fur. Everytime Swarley moved, he got the evil eye for shedding on my just vacuumed carpet. Poor dog. Of course, I say that now, but if we're at a shelter and another long furred dog decides to sit on my lap, that will be the end of my new rule. Just like last weekend, and the weekend before that, I may have overly extended myself and was exhausted and starving by 3pm. I have a feeling this cleaning will only get worse as the next few weeks pass, but that my exhaustion point will only get earlier.

Eureka!

I had a bit of a revelation yesterday when reading another pregnant lady blog. Maybe this is a sign that I am slow, although I will 100% blame it on the very real effect pregnancy has on your brain, but I finally understand why some pregnancy guides qualify me as 36 weeks and others as 35 weeks. This might also have something to do with the whole week to month ratio in pregnancy being totally off (40 week of pregnancy, but 9 months of pregnancy? That doesn't work, since 40 divided by 4 is 10 and nobody says 10 months of pregnancy). And it also explains why some people say 36 weeks is full term, while others say 37 weeks is full term.

So, I've completed week 35 of pregnancy and am technically in week 36, despite being labelled 35 weeks pregnant. I've completed 35 weeks of pregnancy, and am in my 36th week. Yay! I get to skip ahead one chapter. I am not sure why this makes me so happy, since it doesn't put me any closer to my due date than I was before, which has remained steadily at May 30th. But, it's definitely a mental thing.

This past weekend was Easter, and our 1 year anniversary. It was really fun to think back on those few days of wedding related festivities, and I'm not going to be one of those people that says "I can't believe that was a year ago", because, I can't believe that was ONLY a year ago, since things are completely different than they were last April 24th in ways that I do not have to list. Brian and I had a lovely dinner at a seafood restaurant in Henderson called "King's fishhouse" which was somewhere in between Shaw's Crabhouse and Bob Chin's. The food was equally as good as either of those places, but significantly more affordable. We basically didn't celebrate Easter, except the passing thought of going to Mass, then realizing that I had no idea where the nearest Church even was, and remembering the Christmas mass wearhouse/having to watch the priest on a monitor experience, decided against it. Instead, we went to the dog park, which was not at all crowded but super fun. Swarley is slowly starting to look like less of a lazy apartment dog again, and had an excellent time chasing after a few dogs that looked like larger versions of him.

By the way, his reaction to the swing was totally disappointing. I put it together, and he approached it without fear, barely recoiling as it moved when he sniffed it. Maybe once I get some D batteries and make it swing on its own and play music, there will be something more exciting to describe.

Tonight is Brian's second softball game, and this time, I will actually be in attendance. I'll try to dig up the dino-camera and snap a few shots. By the way, Mom, I was thinking a new camera with a nice video capture feature would make an excellent 28th b-day present :)

One step closer

Yesterday, Brian and I completely rearranged our bedroom to accommodate the bassinet. Although the bassinet is pretty compact, the way our room had been arranged, the bassinet would have to be right next to the dog crate. Although I want to create as little separation between the dogs and the baby as possible, having her sleep directly next to the crate which they spend 8 hours per day in doing who knows what doesn't seem like the best idea. Even if I did clean it everyday, it would still be kinda gross. Brian surprisingly didn't have his usual reaction to my suggestion of him moving a bunch of furniture, so we got everything done all in one afternoon. Since he basically had to move all the furniture himself, I built the bassinet (mostly) which was quite the ordeal. You try putting something together with a watermelon strapped to your abdomen. The bassinet now has a spot directly next to me on the bed, with room directly next to Brian if we ended up doing a combination of formula and breastmilk. The dog crate is in the opposite corner of the room, but not so far that they would feel like castaways. The diaper changing pad is set up on half of Brian's dresser, with some boxes ready for baby diaper changing products, which I have yet to purchase.

Swarley is pretty averse to change, so I feel like the best thing to do to keep him sane once the baby comes in is to make all the furniture rearrangements and additions at least a few weeks before she comes home from the hospital. The goal is for Swarley not to associate the baby's arrival with his crate/bed/food bowl etc being moved. I think the biggest obstacle we are going to have to face as far as baby furniture is the baby swing. He doesn't generally like machines that move or make noise, like the vaccuum, blinds that get blown by the wind, or the washing machine. The baby swing both swings AND plays music. Plus, it has a a mini mobile with little stuffed sheep, which you know he's going to think are toys for him. I am planning on putting up the swing this weekend, and we'll see what the reaction is. I am guessing it will be vaguely reminiscent of his reaction to the Christmas Knitting Granny in a Rocking Chair. I'll be sure to have my iPhone set to video. Chloe, I am guessing, couldn't care less as long as her food comes at the same time everyday.

Lastly, here is the Easter Bunny that I made for Tyler. It turned out much nicer than the Teddy Bear. My newest project: baby leg warmers and a cardigan!

Here it is before its big trip to Chicago

And here it is arrived safely and in the arms of its owner!

Las Vegas is one classy city

Yesterday I had an appointment with my OB. As usual, he found the baby's heartbeat within .5 seconds of putting the little doppler thingy on my belly. Her heart is beating strongly, she's in the right position, everything is good with her.

Me, on the other hand, managed to gain 6 pounds in 3 weeks. Now, my weight gain to date has been encouragingly slow. I haven't gained more than 1 or 2 pounds between doctor's visits, which have been more less than 3 or 4 weeks apart. The "normal" rate is 1 pound per week, for a total of 40 pounds, but that is if you were at an ideal weight before getting pregnant. Since I was not at an ideal weight, it is not recommended for me to gain the full 40 pounds. Up until yesterday, I was at +20 pounds. Ok, so +26 pounds is still good for a pregnancy weight gain, especially at this stage (34 weeks, exactly 2 1/2 weeks until I am full term! 5 1/2 weeks until my due date!). 6 pounds in 3 weeks isn't healthy, even if 2 of those pounds should have gone directly to the baby. I'm going to blame it on the entire bottle of water that I chugged before going in, since I anticipated another urine test. Which I did have to do, confirming the result of a "raging UTI" as my doctor put it. That's 2 UTIs in one month, if anyone was keeping track. In 2 weeks, I get the Group B Strep test, which I am not looking forward to, since the pamphlet explains that it consists of violating my privacy (that's as specific as I am going to get).

By far, the highlight of my time at the doctor and hospital yesterday was the waiting room experiences. My doctor was running late because he had been in a delivery in the morning, so my appointment was delayed by about an hour. I had my Kindle (Water for Elephants), and I am glad that my Doctor makes himself available for deliveries even if he has a bunch of appointments in a row, so I absolutely didn't mind. Plus, I was so conveniently seated next to a wonderful example of the white-trash that lives in Las Vegas. A 28 year old woman was there with her sister, and her sister's two pretty cute children. The sister was loudly talking about going to the Tatoo convention, and yelling at her son about having to shave his head (which he was very upset about) because he had gotten gum in it. It was the woman's first visit to this doctor's office, so she was filing out all the pregnant paperwork. She was not-so-discreetly telling her sister that 1) she couldn't remember when her last period was, so she put down "sometime in February". 2) she didn't know anything about her baby's father's medical history, and couldn't call him and ask because he was in jail. 3) didn't know her insurance information (her sister reminded her that she was on Medicaid). Her sister, in between yelling at her 2 1/2 year old son, also kept interrupting her 4 or 5 year old daughter playing a video game on her phone because she was "doing it wrong". Excellent parenting examples.

After my appointment, my doctor recommended that I head over to the hospital to pre-register for my delivery. In that waiting room, I had another delightful sample of Las Vegas locals. An extremely overweight woman, who turned out to be pregnant, was there with equally overweight mother, her 13 or 14 year old daughter, and her 2 year old daughter. She was talking to her mother about how inconvenient it was for her to get searched by the cops last week because she had two vibrators in her purse. She told her mother about how the cops asked why she was carrying two vibrators in her purse, and she explained that "I'm pregnant, as big as a house, horny, single and nobody will have sex with me". She further explained to them that she needed two because one was for "on the go (you know, like in the car and stuff)", and the other was for "prolonged pleasure". She was also there to preregister because her doctor (also my doctor) was going to schedule her for a c-section because her "uterus was liable to BUST", as she explained to the woman doing to her registration. Also, when asked about her marital status, she said, "well, I got married to the father of my first child, but I haven't seen him in 10 years, so I don't know the answer to that question". Sometimes registration questions are hard. On the way out, the 2 year old spilled the entire contents of a bag of Doritos (which she obviously got yelled at for, because 2 year olds should be in charge of holding their own Doritos) onto the hospital floor right in front of the doors to the infant nursery, so my entire time registering was spent interrupted by people's shoes crunching on the chips (which have always smelled bad to me, which is only intensified by being pregnant).

Yes, I am judgmental. I understand people all have different circumstances and everything, but come on! You don't know if you're married? You don't know when your last period was?? You're yelling at your kid for doing kid things, like getting gum in their hair and spilling Doritos? Now I know why all the nice houses are in gated communities.

Birthing Class and Softball

This past weekend, we had our Birthing Class at Spring Valley Hospital, where we plan on delivering. We chose Spring Valley because it is the only hospital in the Las Vegas area that has a Level III NICU, and although we are hoping not to have to use it, it is obviously an excellent selling point. Also, one of my co-workers is a night shift nurse in the nursery and promised that if we chose to deliver at that hospital, she would be the one to prick Mia in the heel for her blood tests, and that she would do it really nicely. The class was great, it was taught by a Labor and Delivery nurse who has been in L&D for 30 years. She also was really laid back and funny. Something I think I would appreciate while I am trying to get through contractions.

We learned that Las Vegas is a medically-conversative town, as far as Labor and Deliver goes anyway, meaning the Doctors and Hospitals are not-so-supportive of sticking by Birth Plans. So if anything is going wrong, there is a pretty good chance of delivering via C-section, or of being given hormones in the event that labor doesn't progress as rapidly as they would like it to. That is not great news, but at least we know what to expect if things aren't going smoothly. There were quite a few couples in the class, and I got the reassurance that I didn't have as big a tummy as some ladies who have the same due date as I do, although I still think my face is above-average in puffiness.

As part of our class, we got a tour of the entire maternity section of the hospital, including the delivery rooms, the recovery rooms, the C-section rooms, and all three nurseries. Everything looks lovely, and actually quite small, so we won't feel like we're in any kind of factory. As long at the babies are born healthy, they are not required to be in the nursery for any more than a couple of hours for their tests and their bath. It's nice to know that Mia will be able to be with us for the majority of time in her first few hours of life. It was great to take the class, and Brian and I definitely learned a lot more than we would have from  just reading the baby books. The nurse-instructor made us promise not to get induced just because we were uncomfortable at 39 weeks, but I crossed my fingers behind my back while making that one. 6 weeks to go!

On a totally unrelated note, Brian decided to join his Bank's softball league. Their first practice was last night, and I went along for the ride (with a folding lawn chair and my Kindle in tow). Brian seemed to have an excellent time playing, and I had an excellent time watching. The next morning, Brian confessed that his arm was a bit painful, and I reassured him that many of the other players were complaining of similar ailments while they were at bat. One had jammed her finger, another twisted his wrist, another his ankle. This is exactly what you get when you bring a bunch of 25+ year old bankers together and ask them to do what they all did at 17 years old, haha. I can't make too much fun, I am sure I would be in exactly the same situation if I had been playing. Next week, the games begin and I will bring a camera. Brian declined my offer to make t-shirts for the team so that they would all match... too bad.

A Decent First Attempt

I still haven't put the butterflies up, but I did finish the Flat Ted Teddy. It's not as nice as the picture, but I am proud of my first stuffed animal. I'm now working on an Easter Bunny, which I plan to make two of.

Crafty Weekend

Last week found me getting extremely restless. Even though I am exhausted everytime I spent more than 30 minutes on my feet, I'm no longer content sitting on the couch watching TV. I suspect that this can be attributed to what the baby books call "nesting", but I think it's just a cute way of spinning the fact that women are freaking TIRED of pregnancy by this point. We too big to be comfortable, but the end is still too far to count down to without driving ourselves nuts.

So, I took a trip to Michael's and made a few purchases. I've been looking at the wooden/fabric/paper letters that they seem to sell at every children's store to decorate the half-nursery we have going on (I say half-nursery because it still has a queen bed in it, so it's half-guestroom, half-nursery), and the only letters that I liked the M, I, and the A were from Anthropologie, and (you guessed it) ridiculously expensive. So, I purchased some blank wooden letters, a few squeeze bottles of acrylic paint that coordinate with our Pottery Barn Penelope bedding, and got to work. I also bought some 20 cent wooden butterflies knowing that the 3 letters wouldn't keep me busy for long. I haven't put up the butterflies yet, but those are all done in the same colors, just with varying patterns.  Here is the result:

Preppy designs

Coordinates with the crib, mobile, and bird wall-decals. You can't see the bedding, but I assure you that it works.

Also, I purchased a new knitting book. After looking for a few patterns online for stuffed animals that I could knit myself, I decided that I would buy a whole book so that I could have a few to make, and so that I could make some for other people's babies and kids in the future. To start, I decided on the one called "Flat Ted Teddy". It seemed like one of the easiest, and only required 2 different colors of yarn. I've already finished knitting all the individual pieces, but have yet to put it all together. Pics next time, since I don't want to show an arm-less Teddy bear.

Flat Ted Teddy is the second picture in the left-hand column. Mine is yellow and whilte rather than pink and white.

There are quite a few super cute toys in there, and once I am done with Mia's Teddy bear, I will make Tyler one of the less cutesy grown up ones (like the snake on the cover, or the Bunny in time for Easter!).

Most women do focus their energies during the last few months on doing productive things getting ready for the baby, and I've done my share of it. If I were you, I wouldn't ask Brian how many times I've changed my mind about the stroller we should have. I actually thought about writing a post exclusively about the different types of strollers and asking for opinions, but since nobody comments on this blog (I'm telling myself that doesn't necessarily mean nobody is reading...), that wouldn't be particularly productive (or entertaining to anyone but me).

So that you don't think that I'm trying to give off the image of being productive all the time, I'll leave you with how I spent last Saturday morning, when it was 90 degrees. I even spent all of 5 minutes in the freezing water, despite the baby making plain her feelings on being submerged in the cold water by kicking me vigorously the whole time. She's fine, it was glorious once we got out.

Non-swollen ankles, but I am sparing you (and me) a picture of myself in the maternity swimsuit that I did end up purchasing. My neighbors were not so lucky.