Community

On my walk back from my midwife appointment, I took some of the smaller residential side streets to enjoy the weather without all the traffic. In front of one the houses, a mom and her baby were sitting on the porch in the warm breeze. When I looked closer I realized I had met her that morning at new parent coffee hour! Getting advice and playing with babies have been great rewards of seeking out local moms groups, but the best part is the feeling of belonging you get when you walk down the street and see people you recognize.

Shh, it's a secret

My underwear is totally falling down when I walk. Trying to keep
clothes on the bottom half of any easy is no easy task, and this pair
has given up.

Midwife appointment

All looks good - I'm negative for strep b, my iron is fine so I'm not
anemic, and my nipples look good. My ankles and feet are a bit swollen
so I have to take a bath with epsom salts, ooh tough. That's it for
tests. I still go every week for a chat about how I'm feeling and to
measure my uturus and listen to the heartbeat, but unless I go overdue
I'm all checked out to pop one out whenever.

Pregnancy Stuff

I'll be technically full term on Saturday, meaning that as long as I don't go into labor before then, that baby will not be considered a preemie and I'll be able to give birth at the Birth Center (barring other complications) instead of the hospital. I still have to pack the bag, ugh. And there's a bunch of cleaning to do, but I don't feel like nagging Bill to do it. Other than that, we're mostly ready, or as ready as we can be. Any time in the next five and a half weeks!

My midwife appointments are weekly from here on out. Last Friday I had a swab taken of my girly and poopy bits to test for Strep B. If you a carrier (lots of people are) it's not very risky for the mom, but can be for the baby, unless antibiotics are given during labor. So that basically means that if I'm positive for Strep B, I'll have to go in as soon as my water breaks, if it breaks before contractions start, and get antibiotics every four hours for the rest of my labor, but I don't have to be transferred to the hospital. The other thing they did was take a bit of blood to test my iron levels, another standard screening done for all pregnant women. If my iron is too low, then I will have to deliver at the hospital, but hopefully the chances of that are small. My iron was just a tiny bit low the last time they tested, and I've been taking iron supplements.

Sunday Gina and I are going to go shopping for nursing bras, so I'll know the store, style and approximate size to buy after my milk comes in. The photographer might tag along with us. Speaking of, she won't be at my birth after all. The Cambridge Health Alliance said no. I think it's a lawyer/insurance thing, because it doesn't make much sense from a PR perspective, but whatever. The photographer's also coming with to my La Leche League meeting tomorrow. The chronicle is still sticking with the story, they're just going to expand it to include to other pregnant moms and their birth stories since they won't have full coverage of mine.

Finally

It's been more than six months, but now there are 3 (three!) new posts on What I'm Eating.

Poor baby (no, not that one)

Bill complained that the other night he had trouble sleeping because one of my trips to the toilet woke him up and when I snuggled up next to him when I got back in bed, the baby kept kicking him.

Tricky

Blogging baby had a childrearing tip the other day to get kids to more easily agree to something they would otherwise pitch a fit over - ask them if they want to do it now or in five minutes. I mentioned it to Bill, who quickly said, "Do you want to have ---- ---* now, or in five minutes?"

*redacted for parental comfort

At the Baby Expo

Convo on our way out:

Thanks for coming with me. I know this isn't really your scene.

Yeah, maybe if they had strippers.

Baby strippers?

Woohoo, take off those Huggies!

And Monique has soiled herself. Give it up for Monique, everybody. Thank you, Monique.

We're wimps so we didn't do it, but I thought it would be pretty funny to see how long it took you to get punched or escorted out by security by telling every parent you passed how ugly their baby was.

He is sooo turning into a dad

"Why did you leave the bathroom light on? It wastes energy."

Maybe because I know I'll be back there in 10 minutes anyway and it's easier to see my way through our dark bedroom that way?

I have such great people in my life

Grace has agreed to drive to Burlingame to pick up a case of It's-Its from their factory for me when I come out in July. I had been foiled in my quest to find mint or chocolate and was even hard pressed to find vanilla on my last several trips to California. My mother-in-law was totally sweet and scoured tons of local stores before our last trip and came up emptyhanded as well. I decided we had to go right to the source, though Bill wasn't so happy with the prospect of driving an hour or more each way from his parent's house to do so, but if that's what it took, that's what was going to happen. You can't argue with me: I have the pregnancy/new baby trump card. Fortunately, Grace has spared us the trouble. Yay, Grace!

Eeeeeewwwwww!!!!

I just got this youtube message:

Imagine a bellybutton fetishist commenting on your bellybutton video. Kinda sexy. Are you single?

Creepy, but not as creepy as the pregnancy fetishists, for some reason.

I just waddled past a few older guys standing around. I must have
looked tired scratching my itchy/stingy belly, because one of them said
in an encouraging voice, "It's almost over." All I got out was a half
laugh, half hmph, so another one asked, "Not soon enough, huh, honey?"

Depressing

Do you trust me?

Good Idea

I had lunch with a friend the other day, who mentioned that she and a bunch of her out of town family members got webcams and have been skyping each other. Normally, that wouldn't hold much appeal for me, but with a baby coming, I'm thinking video chat with the grandparents could be cool. Webcams might be in our future.

I was wondering when they were coming

This morning my belly itched a little bit, so I looked in the mirror (my only means of viewing large swaths of formerly accesible area) and saw my first little patch of stretch marks.

I suck at this patience thing

We ordered a new computer and are expecting delivery today, so I refrained from taking a walk, or going grocery shopping or to the library like I had planned. I'm feeling pretty cooped up.

Now there is a UPS truck parked a block down the street, with a guy sitting in the driver's seat, not doing anything as far as I can tell. I first noticed him about a half an hour ago and no movement.

Wait! The truck is on the move... annnnd it turned down a side street. D'oh!

Communication Plan

Bill and talked about who we'd call other than medical personnel and labor assisitants as developments happen and decided on the following:

The three sets of grandparents will get a call when it looks like labor has started and as soon after the birth as we can manage, and they will be responsible for calling the rest of the family and friends. If you want to be on their call lists, let me know and I'll assign someone to you.

After that we'll do our best to get birth announcements out. Who knows exactly how long that will take, but they'll get there eventually. There may be some combination of audio posts, blog entries, emails and phone calls, but no promises. I have a feeling something else will be taking most of our attention.

St Patrick's Day Parade

We took a bunch of pictures of the parade today, some of which you can see to the left. The rest are in a Flickr set. We caught a lot of the tops of people's heads, since we weren't in the front. It was fun anyway, though, because the woman in front of us was a screamer.

"WOOOOO!!!! South Boston Marching Band!"

"Who's Fitzgerald? Come here, I want to vote for you!"

"Beads! Beads!"

"Fuck the Baptists; I'm Catholic!"

"Happy St Patrick's Day!"

"Get good grades and I'll buy you some roofies! I'm just kidding, I don't buy roofies, I sell them. Seriously girls, get good grades."

"The JP Women's football team? Are you going to be there? Then I'll be there!"

She got a firefighter or policeman from almost every group to come over and hug her, and every politician in the parade shook her hand.

Anticipation

This morning at the new moms group I held a three week old. He was so
tiny and precious and smelled so good in a way that that the older
babies didn't. It made me tear up, both feeling like I couldn't wait
and like it was just around the corner.

Baby Use #37: Scapegoat

"Ewww! There is snot on the shower door."

"Where?"

Points and glares.

"Not mine! It must be the baby's."

Already forcing the kid to take sides

Last night, while fruitlessly trying to defend himself against my pillow onslaught, Bill tried to enlist help.

"Baby, I'm on your side! Kick her! Kick her!"

Coatless!

I am outside! Without a coat on! Nothing but a thin long sleeved
shirt, lightweight khakis, and ballet flats between me and the
elements! I find this exciting! Does it show?

Titty talk

After the first trimester the boob soreness went away, but my milk ducts must be gearing up, or else it's all the obsessive poking I've been doing, because the nipples are leaky and ouchy. Sorry lactation and pregnancy fetishists*, no pics. I know the leaking is perfectly normal and probably not an indicator of future breastfeeding succes, because you never can tell who will have a dificult time of it, but I'm taking it as a positive sign. Look: I work!

*Yes, there are tons of these guys out there, as I saw when I searched craigslist for "pregnant" and "expecting" looking for new moms groups and found guys looking for pregnant prostitutes. On the one hand I fully support the idea that pregnant women and moms can also be sexual and also be intelligent and also be whatever else constitutes the range of experiences of men and women. But the fetish thing is about reducing women to one aspect of themselves and as such is creepy and insulting.

More belly vids

One cute one (kicks) and one gross one (belly button)

New Baby Trips

Bill's parents have generously offered to fly us out to CA in July, rather than flying out to Cambridge after the baby comes, and had the wonderful idea of a family meet-the-baby BBQ. So hopefully we'll be able to have the aunts and uncles and (great) grandparents down on July 9, the Sunday that we'll be there. We're also going to try to do a younger generation friends thing on Saturday.

We might also be headed to Boulder, CO the last week in June. Bill has a conference there and I've never seen Boulder and thought it would be fun to go. Still waiting on that schedule, though.

Commemorative Tree Planting

This is a pretty neat idea, although $200 seems kind of steep. I've always liked the idea of planting a tree when a child is born. There used to be a tree in my grandfather's front yard that was planted when he was a baby, and he managed to outlive it by a good ten years or so. Growing up, I thought it was pretty cool that he and the tree were the same age. If I had a yard, I'd definetly be planting a tree, maybe even doing the placenta thing, if Bill weren't so squicked out by that idea. My due date's around Arbor day, so maybe I can find a tree-planting program to participate in. That way, when the spawn grows up, I can bring her/him back here and see who's taller.

So far I've been lucky enough to have a pretty easy, uneventful pregnancy, but size is definitely starting to become a factor. A week or so ago I noticed that patches of skin near the top of my stomach were getting tingly, less sensitive to touch, or even numb. I finally figured out that it was probably the underwire in my bra cutting off circulation to the skin. My bras aren't too tight: my boobs are just so damn heavy that their weight pushes the wire into my tummy because it sticks out now. On the plus side, going braless is much more comfortable than it used to be because my sticking-out tummy acts much like a shelf bra.

Yesterday I had Cydni laughing at me as I was complaining that going to the bathroom is not only more frequent but less easy these days. I can work my way around my stomach and I can work my way around a bulky winter coat, but it takes some serious yoga moves to get around the combination of the two and thoroughly apply toilet paper to all the appropriate places, especially within the confines of a public restroom stall.

Mom went home on Friday, just as the weather was turning pleasant. Bill and I took advantage of the Saturday sunshine to sit in the park and munch on bread and cheese. I could even wear my light jackets since it didn't matter if they closed in the front. Saturday night a former labmate of Bill's was in town and we went to dinner with a few of the Frenchies. Pictures may make it up later this afternoon if I'm feeling productive.

Cab shortage

I've always seen a huge line of cabs at the cab stand in central square, but that was before we tried to get one on a Saturday night. Two got snatched up right before we got there and two more were sucked out from under us a half block before the stand. We finally had to edge down the street to cut one off before it got to the stand. It was the first time I have instructed Bill to "run in front of that woman. Run infront of her!"

Random Bits of Good News

Mom found a place to stay when she visits after the spawn arrives, for free, even! She met a woman at church last weekend and we dropped by to look at her place yesterday. She's insisting on not taking any payment from mom, but she's a massage therapist, so we can purchase some body work to repay her. And if you're looking for a massage, let me know and I'll send you her way.

Mom agreed to address the birth announcement envelopes, so that increases the likelihood of them actually getting sent to people about 100 fold. Can you imagine me, who has managed Christmas cards about twice in my life, addressing birth announcements with a days or weeks old baby? Hahahaha.

Something I miss

A woman just breezed by my window with quick, long, jaunty strides and I thought, "I used to be able to do that."

In the News

It looks like the Cambridge Chronicle is interested in doing a profile on ALACE/doulas, and in doing so will be covering the rest of my pregnancy and birth, possibly as a seperate story. The photographer whose idea the story was came over on Friday and took pictures of mom and I sorting through baby clothes and may come along later this week as we go to the Cambridge Children's Clothing Exchange and later take some portraits of the two of us. We're also discussing having her shoot my next midwife appointment and a bit of my yoga practice. She's gotten a reporter at the Chronicle interested in the story, so I'll probably be meeting her in the next couple of weeks, too. This might end up being one well documented trimester. At least it gets me off the hook for having to take some photos. Speaking of photos, there are a couple up on Flickr from yesterday, when Bill, mom, and I went to the USS Constitution. We went to the North End and Haymarket (4 bunches of asparagus for $1!) too, but didn't take any pics there.

Kicks

I finally caught a kick on camera. The clip is about 16 seconds and the kick happens at about 5 seconds. The general up and down movement is just me breathing.