Raining babies

Swingin

Adam and I got an essential summer relaxing item this week. Thanks to Grandpa Red, Joan, and Sarah, we purchased a hammock from LLBean. We got it set up and tried it out. I can imagine hours of rocking with the baby under the trees. Brindzi was excited about it too... too bad she can't swing too.

Baby Shower

Last weekend Nikki and Ali hosted a baby shower for me at Nikki's. They put their Martha Stewart skills to use for a beautiful baby shower! My mom came up from Bend and a few friends met in Seattle to celebrate the coming of "Dweezy".

Everyone but me got to enjoy some yummy mimosas as they filtered in. Someday soon I will be able to enjoy alcohol and caffeine again :^)

Nikki and Becky had some awesome prepared food! It was scrum diddly umpshush. While Nikki, Becky, and my mom prepared the food, Julie and I went and spent some of George's money on new shoes. Thanks George!

Of course because Ali and Nikki hosted, we had to do some Art! We all painted stars, swirls, and Sam tackled the sun. All I know is that it's not a mobile. I am sure Dweezy will like it no matter what.

Cupcakes are back in style. And yummy! Here they are complete with babies with mohawks!

And of course, some cute baby clothes and gifts! Thanks everyone!

We also played some fun games and had some good laughs. Everyone walked away with potted herb or two and a gift bag for winning a prize. Ali and Nikki sure do know how to through a party:-)

Hooray for:

• Family
• Friends
• Love

Also:

• Pets
  
• Chocolate
• Baseball
• Bikes

Yep.

No more feet

No more feet! Only if I bend over can you see my toes!

32 Weeks. 8 Weeks left.

Growing belly at 32 weeks. Any guesses as to what sex it might be? Hmm...

I have no more toes or feet when I look down, my belly is in the way. I feel like I am always saying, "wow, I have really grown this week" but now I really feel that way. I have really "popped out" as some might say. Little Dweezy is growing and so am I. Or so we hope. Adam's class measured my belly in early March. They measured it again on Friday. According to the string, I hadn't grown any. Or the first measure by Nikki was really off. Or maybe I am just changing shape. It's a mystery. I am also REALLY hungry all the time but I can't eat much. Of course I am hungry for carbs and sweet things. I am passed the hump of the gestational diabetes. I tested negative for it and now it won't be an issue. Of course this has completely changed my mind set and I am having slightly more trouble staying on my low-carb diet. I have also been experiencing this stretching burning pain on my stomach right under my right breast. I think that Dweezy is growing or pushing a lot on that area and that it's completely normal but I also think I will ask my mid-wife next week. My sciatic pain is almost completely gone too. The chiropractor has really helped with that.

Adam and I went to a partner prenatal yoga class last night. It was fun to work together on some yoga poses. Although some of it wasn't totally new information as far as relaxation or poses that might help in labor, it was fun to connect and spend 2 hours just focusing on the baby and me and us as new parents. I think Adam is going to be a great labor coach and relief to me during labor. He already knows how to calm me down and help me relax. He is always so relaxed about everything, even when I am uptight. He has the relaxation methods down for helping me. It will be interesting to see how much those might help during labor or if I just don't want any of them done. I had an overwhelming sense that we are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing, even if its scary and we don't have all the answers, this is the right choice for us. I have no doubts in my mind that I want to raise a child with Adam. Not that I was doubting any of that but it's always nice to just feel so right about something. And this feels so right. I had a similar feeling on our wedding day. This is where we are headed next and it feels good.

We also had our first visit to the Birth Center last appointment. It was so nice. It almost had a bed and breakfast type of feeling. The rooms had great comfortable queen sized beds, birthing tubs, a bathroom, and seating areas. The people we want to have at the birth can wait in the comfy waiting room, or with us. It just feels very personal.

Next week is my first baby shower. Nikki and Ali are hosting it in Seattle. I am excited to spend time with friends and get ready for the baby. I am sure I will have fun things to say about it next week. My mom is coming up for it. She hasn't seen me since New Years. Then in a couple of weeks we will have a co-ed shower in Bham, hosted by Jill, Julie, and Jen (the J's). Adam's family will be able to be at that one, as well as Bham friends!

I think it might be time for weekly belly shots. Instead of monthly. We shall see. You can see all the monthly belly shots in the "Belly Shots" category/label on the left of the blog.

Baby Room

We reached our goal for spring break, to work and get close to finishing the baby room. Well, it was my goal at least. And here it is! Notice the awesome trim (thanks Adam!).

Adam set up the crib we got this week. The chair is borrowed from friends (Thanks Jen & Oliver). Soon Adam will be done with the changing table/dresser that we got on Craig's list. We got some wooden stars, my theme, to go on the wall. It's a real finished room. One of the only finished rooms in our house. And the baby probably won't live in here for a couple of months. Ha! Nor will it care how it looks. Oh well. It feels good to me.

It's weird to be sitting in a room for a baby. Our baby. A baby that is not even here yet. Sometimes it feels like it's just around the corner, other times it feels a million miles away. In yoga class we talk about just living in the moment, not looking too far forward or too far back. Wishing we could change the past or what's going to happen in the future. This is hard for me to do but I am working on it. I am trying to just enjoy where I am right now. Knowing that when the time is right the baby will be here, hopefully not too early OR too late. I can try to be ready but I don't think any one thing is going to really make me ready to be a mom, other than actually experiencing it. The other night I turned to Adam and said "we are going to be parents. Not just Adam and Erin but real parents." It's hard to wrap my mind around it sometimes. Our lives are REALLy going to change. I know it will be wonderful and hard but at the same time, I have no idea what to really expect. I feel like we can read and practice and get ready but at the same time I don't know what that deep emotional feeling is going to be like. I don't know what feeling like parent is going to feel like. I don't know what that love is going to feel like. I remember when we first got Gryffin and I said, I didn't know you could love another little animal like this. Ha!

Well back to school tomorrow. Nine more weeks of school. Ten (or so) weeks more of pregnancy. 5:30 am will be here too soon. June 24th will be here before we know it too. Live each day.

Closet Closed

Another project finished. Spring break is nice that way. For finishing projects. Or starting them. Baby room closet? Check-plus!

Paul and I hung the door. I'm intentionally not including a bad-tasting joke about hanging here. I'm keeping myself on a short leash. Anyway, hanging doors is not that easy and not that hard, but it's nice to have two people. On the Internet, they have directions for prehung doors. And for new doors in old jambs. And new doors in new jambs. But I used an old door in a new jamb. No help there, from Mr. I nternet. If you're feeling like you've met this door before, it's the one that used to be between the office and the TV room.

I am now a sheetrock master. Sort of. Now that I've done some significant sheetrocking, I am noticing that whoever did all the sheetrocking in our house previously was definitely not a sheetrock master, which makes me feel all the more masterly...ish.

I'm also good at priming. But who isn't?

That is a fine piece of work. It's like it was always there! But wait! What's that on the left? Are those...

...built in shelves? Oh, wunnerful! Wunnerful! A perfect use of that silly space between the wall and that fancy new closet! Good show!

It's curtains for you, sliding-glass-door!

Close to Closet-o

Erin's got me working on a closet in the the baby room. So you know what that means. Yep. Paul came over. It's coming along nicely.

First I got rid of the crappy shelf that was in there.

Then I put in a top and bottom plate. Note the gap for the door. That's what I call "planning ahead."

Framing!

Just waiting now for Paul to come over and help me with the jamb, which needs to be straight and square and plumb and all of those things, lest the door drag or jam or scrape or bang.

I'll keep you updated.

When I finally escaped conferences this afternoon, I headed to the garden. We bought a wheelbarrow-load-sized bunch of plants--veggies mostly--two weeks ago. They really want to be in the ground. So. Some shrubbish things out front and out back. Two fancy grasses on the hillside. An-duh, the answer to last week's puzzler: Chard, lettuce, kale, spinach, sugar snaps, broccoli, onion, leek, strawberry, rosemary, and parsley. A nice start of starts.

And the raspberries are going to kick asp this year, after being rather stingy transplantees last summer. Lots of new ones coming up. We may not even have to go pick any. Which would be especially delightfully deliciously satisfying. Blueberries looking good, too.

Hope the baby's got a good weed-grip.

The ups and downs

I am 28 weeks along this week. One week into my 3rd trimester. Time is flying. I feel like the last two weeks "pregnancy" has really settled in. I was going to write this post all about how empowered I am feeling towards birth and the process that I hope to go through in a couple of months. To let you all know how things have been going, what is happening with the baby room, and getting ready in general. I am still feeling those things and will still write about them but this week I have also had an unknown. Unknowns sometimes in pregnancy are scary.

My belly is growing, it's harder to bend down, move around, and in general more uncomfortable. My sciatic nerve has been hurting. Which has led to complications and unknowns this week. I woke up two nights ago and was in extreme pain. My whole right side was hurting and cramping. My hips hurt, my side hurt, and then I had this weird pain in the front just above my hip. It hurt to go to the bathroom. Adam helped massage things out and I did some stretches. I tried to go back to a restless sleep. I got up and tried to shower and get ready for work but the pain was just too much. It scared me. Adam and I tried to figure out what to do. I didn't think it was contractions because it was only on one side but it was not a normal pain. I didn't know if I should call the hospital, wait and call my mid-wife, go to work, or what. We ended up giving my parents a wake up call. Mom's are great for this. She asked all the right questions, are you bleeding, are the cramps regular, etc. Then my dad spent time telling me about sciatic pain and how it could come in the front of your body. We decided to get up and try to go to work, call my mid-wife and see what she said. The baby was still moving around like normal, so we figured it wasn't an emergency. I was moving pretty slow though and in general not a happy camper. My mid-wife said all of my symptoms didn't indicate early labor, placenta abrupt ion, gallbladder or kidney stones, or any other emergency symptoms. She had me go to the lab for testing for a bladder or kidney infection. She also suggested chiropractic care. So I went to the chiropractor, my test results came back negative for infections, and my mid-wife called back with the results of our ultra-sound from a couple of weeks ago. She told me I had a small cyst on my right ovary. Right about the same location as my pain. She wanted me to go and get another ultra-sound to see if it has ruptured. This might be causing the pain, and is completely normal. So that is where I am right now. I will hopefully go and do that soon. Last night I slept better, I am not at work today, so I got to sleep in. I am feeling better. It still hurts after going to the bathroom and moving in some positions. Another theory that people have is that I somehow pulled a ligament that holds my uterus in place. We are concerned but we don't think it's an emergency. We just want to know what might be going on. Things change when you are carrying another being. More than just you is at stake.

But on the flip side, things have been going really well. I am feeling really empowered about this whole process that we go through as women. It's truly amazing what our bodies are capable of doing. I have loved being pregnant. I am excited about the birth process and meeting this baby. Adam and I have been going to our Natural Child Birth Class. Tomorrow night is our last night. It has been so good. I am learning so much about birth, pain relief, breast feeding, and the natural birth process. We have been watching so many natural birth movies from all over the world. Birth is such a natural thing that women have been doing for thousands of years. Yet, in our society birth is a scary thing. We treat it so differently here in the US than other countries. Yes, birth is painful but it can be so much more. We have been learning so much about how the US treats pregnancy and birth and what consequences it has. Our rate of using interventions is huge. Doctors use c-sections, epidurals, and inductions at such a high rate when they are not always needed. Once one intervention happens, others follow and it changes the natural way birth is supposed to happen. Are interventions needed sometimes, yes. There are times when they are needed and we should be glad they are here. But it's such a small percentages of births that really need them. We recently watched an amazing movie called "The Business of Being Born" about what is really happening in our country related to birth. It was really powerful to watch. I don't want to judge people for their decisions they make during birth. I just hope they are aware of what those decisions are and what the alternatives are. I know that I cannot control birth. Things might happen that are out of my control but I want to know what my options are, what the consequences are and that I am making an informed decision, not one that is just easier. I am more scared of having to have interventions than I am having a natural birth. I also know that I am a higher risk pregnancy and so those interventions might have to happen, so I have to be ok with that.

So that is my rant on pregnancy. There are still (hopefully) 3 month left. I have to remind myself to slow down and just take each step as it comes. This baby will be here when it's ready. Adam and I are excited to meet it :-)