It is so much colder than January was

Our birthdays turned out great; the whoel weekend was nice, actually. Saturday we walked around the city in the snow, getting canolis and cappuchino at Cafe Vittoria, pistachio macaroons (my favorite, favorite, favorite) and chocolate florentines at Mike's Pastry, both of which are in the North End, a great little neighborhood chock full of italian restaurants, tourists, and clusters of little old italian men wearing matching hats. On our way to the downtown crossing Borders (Bill had a gift certificate from his uncle), we walked through the farmers market at Haymarket and picked up 6 avocados for $1, which we turned into guacamole to go with the shimp and tropical fruit salsa we made for dinner. The recent Flickr photos to the left are from Saturday. Sunday Bill made up blueberry pancakes and we mostly just took it easy until dinner at East Coast Grill, a place we don't go nearly often enough.

Tonight we braved the cold to go to the Birth Center orientation. We met most of the midwives, got a packet of info on procedures, what to bring, etc, and Bill got to see the inside of the birth center for the first time. Hopefully soon I'll be assigned a doula and get to meet her and then after I meet Gina's photographer friend, who might be shooting my birth, that should be everyone who will be there.

The weather sure has turned freezing for mom's visit. The past few days have been brutal and we're supposed to get snow on Thursday, hopefully after her flight lands. It's not supposed to get out of the 30s the whole time she's here. I hope she can handle it.

What should I do for my birthday?

So I turn 30 this weekend. Sunday, I think. Wait, let me check.

Yes, Sunday. We don't have any plans as of yet. The default scenario, getting smashed, is out (stupid baby), and we haven't put much thought into it. Speaking of getting smashed, Cyndi got us these cool coasters for xmas that we used last weekend for poker night. There were six of them and six of us, so it worked out perfectly. The coasters have levels of drunkeness on them from sober, through plastered, to hung over, and we passed them around acording to who they fit best at the time. I kept the sober one all night, but after a point we needed a few more drunk ones because the five of them went through four bottles of wine. So, yes, cool coasters, but we all agreed that they were a little confused. The numbers 1 through 6 are printed on them to give the supposed progression through drunkeness as follows:

1. Sober
2. Tipsy
3. Plastered
4. Drunk
5. Wasted
6. Hung over

Clearly plastered is after drunk, as could also fit after wasted, although that is somewhat up for dabate. But at #3? Wrong, wrong, wrong. R-O-N-G, rong.

And to continue the cool gifts from dad and Cyndi theme, we got this camera in the mail yesterday. It is cute and tiny and the docking system for transferring pics to the computer and charging the battery is way more user friendly than our last camera. I took that picture of Bill at the bowling alley with it last night. I tried to take a picture of Megan and Ian, my friends from signing club, but didn't have time to figure out exactly how the flash worked - it said it was on auto, but it didn't go off and the picture turned out pretty much black. Next time.

We also got 160 gDiaper refills, size small, delivered yesterday, but I can't tell who they're from. So if it was you, let me know. We now have 210 inserts, enough to decide if this is the long-term diaper solution we'll stick with, but only 2 of the outer coverings. I'm thinking we'll have to pick up a few more of those.

But back to birthday celebrations. Any ideas? (Oh yeah, it's also Bill's birthday on Sunday.)

No diabetes for me, thanks. Pass the donuts.

Last night on my way to bowling the birth center called to remind me about my appointment today. While I had someone on the phone I asked if they had my test results back. She hunted around a bit to find them and said they were normal, yay! However, it is kind of annoying how many times I called with no answer back. I think it's because I've got the head of the birth center as my midwife, and she's crazy busy with other responsibilities that she doesn't have as much time for her patients as some of the other midwives.

It turns out that one of the other moms at my moms' group yesterday had the same midwife and we got the same sense of her: she's nice enough, but we don't have as strong a bond with her as we hoped we would, and although our office visits are longer than they would be at an OB's office, they aren't as long and detailed as we were anticipating from midwifery care. She said that she got a different (better) feeling from some of the other midwives in the practice. It's not that there's anything wrong or bad about the one we got, it's just not as great as we were hoping. She also mentioned that whenever she had a test done she had to be really on top of things and call a bunch to get results, too, so at least it's not just me.

It's not nice to make fun of people

But sometimes it's just so easy. Miracle whip/ranch dressing/crescent roll "pizza"?

via my favorite blog, One Good Thing

Nice people do exist

A woman just gave me her seat on the T. First time!

I just finished getting my picture taken by a photographer expanding her
maternity portfolio and now I'm on my way to pick up some maternity
clothes. Craigslist is the best.

Glucose screen results... still waiting

I called last Thursday to see if the results were ready and they said they'd have them by Friday, but I didn't hear anything. Another call on Friday, but the answering service picked up, so no dice, and they were closed over the three day weekend.

When I got a hold of someone today, the receptionist said that they would only have called if I turned out to have gestational diabetes, otherwise I'd just get the results at my next appointment. So that is probably good news, but to double check I left my name and number and asked that the nurse call me when she got in.

In other news, we made it until 9am Monday at the scifi marathon, then left for our beds as we weren't interested in the last two movies: Konga - had just seen King Kong as part of the marathon - and Buckaroo Banzai - saw it on Netflix a couple of months ago. We totally lucked out with our seats. I had the center seat in the second row and the seat in front of me was missing it's back, so there was no one to block my view, I could step over it to get out rather than scooting out the row, and I could use the seat as a foot rest. Better even than the front row. (In this small-screened theater, the front row is the best, both so you can see the screen better and so you can lie down on your sleeping bag in front of your seat.) We also happened to be surrounded by some hard-core marathon attendees, some of whom had been coming for more than 25 years and others who were part of the 4:15 [am] crew, who were almost always first in line for the 12-noon marathon. Very friendly bunch.

So far we've seen the original King Kong, a Batman serial from WWII that
refered to "shifty eyed japs", Steamboy, and Fire Maidens from Outer
Space. Next up: 12 Monkeys followed by the aluminum foil hat contest.

Waiting for king kong

T minus one hour to the start of the marathon. We're getting to know
our neighbors. Man ponytails abound.

gDiapers

For any of you thinking of getting me gDiapers, an fyi that their grand opening sale ends next Wednesday, so you might want to place your orders now.

Gorgeous day

Today has to be one of the most beautiful days of the year. Bright sun, light breeze, slightly cool. Add a sandwich (best ever=hummus, cheese, sprouts, green apple, honey mustard, avocado, carrot shavings, and more on pumpernickel) with Bill at Darwin's Ltd and you've got one very happy Emily.

Update: it was so nice out, I ended up walking everywhere - to Cambridge Children's Clothing Exchange, to lunch with Bill, to a mom's group out by Fresh Pond, and back to Harvard Square - all told, I think it was over 5 miles. I had some sore tootsies and skipped the second mom's group I was planning on going to that evening. But all's better today and I made it to coffee hour at Stellabella Toys this morning.

Two more days to the sci-fi movie marathon!!! Also, dinner with Gina and Matt tonight, and poker and cheese night tomorrow.

Shout outs

I just have to give a shout out to Shannon, my massage therapist at Violet Skin Boutique yesterday, and to Cyndi, who gave me the Spa Finder gift certificate for the massage Shannon gave me, which was just about the best one ever, and at $95/hr was way more reasonable that the $140/hr I was quoted when looking for a spa that did prenatal massage.

In a weird coincidence, it turns out Shannon went to school a few blocks from where I lived when I was 13 and 14 and her dad owned the apartment building that mom and I lived in.

Yay, it's over

Now I'm just waiting on a friend to go to lunch, hopefully indian
buffet. Then I have an appointment for a massage this afternoon (thank
you, Cyndi!), after which I should have about anhour to rest before yoga
and then dinner at a friend's for sign language group.

Yay, it's over

Now I'm just waiting on a friend to go to lunch, hopefully indian
buffet. Then I have an appointment for a massage this afternoon (thank
you, Cyndi!), after which I should have about anhour to rest before yoga
and then dinner at a friend's for sign language group.

Half way there

Two hours down, two to go. Unfortunately, one of the other patients
just turned on the TV with the sound blaring and had the monumentally
crappy taste to set it on Divorce Court. I'm having a hard time
concentrating enough to read or even type this through the squabbling.

This Sucks

It's 7:30 am, I haven't even left for the hospital yet, and I am STARVING. How the hell am I going to make it past noon without going crazy?

Happy Valentines Day

For more wonderful VD poems like the following, see pamie.com.

Happy Valentine's Day, Mom.
It's weird I sent you this, right?
Yeah, I thought it'd be weird.
But first I thought it'd be funny,
because you have that picture of me
from when I was three
and I'm in the bubble bath
holding a bar of soap in one hand
and in the other -- for some reason -- a hot dog weiner?
I guess it was only funny in concept,
recreating the picture and sending it to you
now that I'm forty-three.
It's too bad you couldn't just see it in my head
when I came up with it,
because it was friggin' hilarious.
Regardless, I'm no longer drinking tequila.

via Chaos Theory

Public Service Announcement

Although there is currently a pod person infesting my uterus, my personality has not been wiped and replaced with that of someone who wears cat sweatshirts. Therefore, my aversion to cute email forwards is still intact, even when they relate to said infestation or my impending motherhood. We will now return to our irregularly scheduled programming.

(And, yes, I still love all of you email forwarders dearly, I just don't love lists in my inbox.)

Dun-dun...dun-dun (Jaws theme)

The outie, it aproaches!

The Lego Suicides

"combining a morbid sense of humor and LEGOs"

via Bibi's Box via Cynical C, as usual

Bleh

My one-hour glucose test came back a bit high (happens to about 1 in 4 women apparently), so I have to go back for the three-hour test to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes (only about 1% of women). My level was just above the cutoff (147 instead of 140) and according to my urine sample I was dehydrated, which probably accounts for it. If only I had had a couple of glasses of water that morning.

The three-hour involves fasting for 10 hours ahead of time, then drinking a syrupy drink and having your blood sucked out every hour for the next three hours. Meanwhile you're stuck in the hospital waiting room and can't eat anything.

Nice

A guy just pissed outside my window two feet from a fucking port-a-potty. I wish I had thought to grab the camera for a bit of public shaming.

Score

I just bought a 37 piece lot of baby girl clothes for $1 each off of
craigslist. The ones I don't like I can just take to Cambridge
Children's Clothing Exchange.

Content

What a great Sunday. We braved the blizzard to have coffee at 1369.
The two block walk left my hair soaked with snow, but we warmed up over
our mochas as Bill worked and I read. After an hour or two we had the
hummus plate, then came home for more relaxing and another snack before
going out again to see Good Night and Good Luck and as a bonus movie,
Munich. The four hour movie stint left us starving so we wandered
Chinatown looking for a restaurant open after a snowstorm at 10pm on
Sunday. Chow Chau (Chau Chow?) City was open and served us delicious
fried bean curd with shrimp and scallops mixed in as well as crispy
shrimp with broccoli, peppers and mushrooms. Now we're on the T,
anticipating a warm bed soon. Good night.

New Deal

Bill is pretty awesome about putting the toilet seat down - he only forgets once every month or two - but much less awesome about replacing empty toilet paper rolls. So we have this new deal where I get a back rub for every empty toilet roll I happen upon. Everybody wins!

It's finally winter

It's crazy snowing out there, 18 degrees, but feeling like zero, and it's expected to continue until at least a foot has been dumped on us. Fortunately, we have nowhere to go and don't have to shovel it, so Bill is making us eggs, hash browns, and fresh squeezed o.j. (best boyfriend ever!) and I'm just lazing around in my robe, watching the cars on our block get towed.

Baby Stuff

Ok, so I updated the wishlist and took a brief inventory. Mom and I will do a more complete assessment when she visits next month to make sure the gaps get filled in, but these are the major items I'm missing:

Breast pump - I'm torn about what to do for this one. If I have milk supply problems, I'll need a hospital-grade pump, which are expensive ($200-300), and can sometimes just be rented for a short period of time while you are building up your milk supply. If all goes well, I could probably get by with a cheaper model for pumping the occasional bottle for someone to give the baby while I'm out.

Diaper bag - there are so many choices, I am overloaded. I want something that Bill won't mind carrying, and is functional, so there goes most of the super cute options. There are a few on my wishlist, in a few different sizes for use on different length outings. I'm not totally in love with any of them, so I'm open to suggestions, but no matter what, I've got to have a diaper bag.

Warm outer layers - I got a couple of small hats, but nothing that ties on, or has flaps to cover the ears and no jackets (hoods would be good for winter when the babe will be 6-9 mo). The baby legs would be great for layers, too.

Disposable diapers - in the beginning I'm going to try gDiapers, disposables, AND cloth before making a final decision on which direction to go. I got one starter kit of gDiapers and could use another, plus some disposables to get us started.

I'm sure there's other stuff, that I can't think of right now. I'll update when mom and I do the full inventory.

The baby shower was teh awesome!

There were pictures taken, but they are on actual film, and the roll is not finished, so you should get to see them sometime after the spawn has gone to college.

The trip to Carson City, and to Grace's and the shower were all great, and went smoothly. Lots of quality time, vegging and a mountain of presents. Grace and Jason had a huge suitcase they had been meaning to get rid of and I completely filled it with the shower gifts. Thank god some of the bigger items are being shipped directly here. Now I have to take inventory and decide what I still need (not blankets, we were blessed with all manner of quilts and blankets, we could smother 20 babies), and make purchases/update the wishlist accordingly.

Some of our favorites:

• Spa gift certificate
• Question Authority onsie
• Skull and crossbones booties
• Baby Manual
• Hip Mama Survival Guide - Bill was cracking up on the subway reading this on the way home from the airport
• Handmade quilts, knitted blankets, crocheted blankets, hats, custom "product of chemicla engineering" onsie, and more
• Mighty mouse onsie
• The food grinder from when I was a baby
  

I'm so lucky to have such wonderful, generous people in my life - thank you, thank you, thank you!

The third trimester is the sexiest

Last night I noticed for the first time that my feet and ankles were swollen, and my belly button is dangerously close to turning into an outie. Fortunately Bill doesn't think the title deserves to be said sarcastically.

Better than poorly placed kicks

The spawn got the hiccups for the first time today.  I'm getting Braxton Hicks more frequently now, especially correlated with certain activities, but that would be TMI, so I'll spare you.