. . . was the morning….

ANYWAY. Not in labor, just hanging out, doing laundry, so I guess I have to go to class tonight after all. Shucks.

Dave has powered on his cell phone, and called me twice today already just to see how I was doing. We are NOT cell phone people, and we realized that Dave doesn’t even know if the ringer is ON on his cell, or how to answer it. I mean, we are REALLY, REALLY not cell phone people. When he gets home this afternoon, we’re going to call it for practice. EXCITING, HUH?

Also, anyone have any (free) podcast recommendations? I get completely overwhelmed when I browse the podcast store, and you can’t really just stream an episode of something to get a feel for it, and I don’t want to subscribe to a bunch of crap I don’t really want. So, if there’s any podcast you think I might like, let me know! I’m thinking they might be a good midnight distraction in the coming weeks.

And posting late, so probably freaking some folks out, no? Heh.

I had insomnia last night, and stayed up til 2 to try to tire myself out.  I ordered myself a used Mei Tai Baby, Adjustable, in a red dragon brocade, because OH GOD, what if I don’t have enough hippie-ass baby carriers?! 

Today, I farted around the house all morning, finally dragging into school by 2, where I basically finished up my networking class, completely, and then burned all my stuff from my lab station onto a disk, and made sure I had all my stuff out of the office. I had my last seminar class tonight, which was a dinner at my prof’s house, and people were surprised to see me still hobbling around.

One of my classmates used to be an RN, and worked in L&D for years, and has always been commenting on my pregnancy. All in a good way, very positive "Wow, you’re look great! You’re really moving for XX weeks!" and last week, she mentioned I hadn’t dropped. TODAY, though, she says I HAVE dropped, and she looked at me and said "You’re close, I can see it in your eyes…" So, that’s something. And, I think I’ve started to lose my mucus plug, so wheeee.

Dave has a shoot tomorrow, that starts at 4:45 AM. As in, the MORNING.  He was hoping I’d go into labor early enough for him to cancel that (but seriously, like me LABORING is going to be easier or more restful than a sunrise shoot…) but it looks like it’s still on at this point. (OBVIOUSLY.)

So, yeah. I’m feeling kinda icky, wondering if I’ll see my OB’s office on Friday or be a mom by then… weirrrdd. Either way, May 9 is a cool day, because tomorrow will be my 5 year anniversary of quitting smoking, which I like to celebrate and acknowledge every year. Five years! Not One Puff! Whoohoo.

I’ve painted myself into a corner of "if I don’t post everyday, will people panic?" So, here I am, posting! No panicking!

The play was great. I did not go into labor. Goddammit.

My ILs continue to annoy the shit out of me, by their complete apathy towards Dave. DUDE, do NOT bitch about him "never calling" (despite no one EVER EVER calling us) when he calls you and leaves two messages, and you don’t CALL BACK. It’s not like you’re BUSY.  Good thing he got through on the third try, eh? And even weirder, hello, he’s about to become a FATHER, so you’d think a phone call (which is rare, granted) from him, 5 days before his wife’s due date, would warrant SOME kind of response. But no. Lifetime Television was far too engrossing, I guess. Fucking A. At least he recognizes how fucked up it is, and that that’s NOT how he wants his family to function. As much as I’m excited to have a baby, I’m equally excited to see Dave become a dad, and be able to have the family he’s always wanted, and be the dad he always deserved.

I’m just so annoyed that there’s all this — pressure on "I expect to see that BABY more than i see YOU now" coming frommy MIL, when she can’t even CALL BACK. She has our number, ferfuckssake. I worry about too much intrusion, BECAUSE of the baby, you know? Like "oh, i want to smell the baby’s head, but whatever, I don’t need to acknowledge YOU, son."  Maybe if there was some sense of normalcy with them, I wouldn’t be so fucking defensive of my baby ALREADY. You know? Argh.  Don’t fake this family shit because of a BAAAYYYBEEEE, when your own son can’t even get a CALL BACK.

OKay, for real, I think the baby is dropping now. Today I’ve had a change in my peeing, in that I’m DEFINITELY peeing more, but with less volume. I’m pretty sure there’s a visual shift downwards, too. Or, I’m just high from anticipation and peeing is a side effect.

Pretty calm day here, I actually slept pretty well — the first night we’ve had the bedroom window open overnight! I thought we might get cold at some point, but we never did. THAT’s how warm it’s been.  Of course, laying there listening to the street wake up, I had the distinct thought of "Oh shit, the neighborhood is going to HATE that we have a summer baby." Oh well. 🙂

I went for a short walk, just up a few blocks and around the school and back, but my feet started feeling fat. I haven’t had much problems with swelling, and I think it was just exacerbated by the heat, so I came home and put my feet up on the ottoman and drank some water and just relaxed for a bit. Dave worked on the lawn all day, and then we went to TRU to use a giftcard to get a swing. I really wanted the Nature’s Papasan one, it just looked so much less BABY than the Ocean Wonders one, but I just couldn’t justify the extra 40 bucks we’d have to spend. We got home and Dave assembled the swing, and we’re ready to. . . rock. I guess.

So, yeah, I’m just waiting waiting waiting. While I wait, have y’all seen The Oozinator? It’s  A REAL TOY, from Hasbro. HOW it got out of the "new toy developers sitting around stoned in Daytona Beach just. . . talking, dude" stage to an ACTUAL PRODUCT, I have no idea. Anyway, it is WORTH a look.

Here’s another link: Enter a contest to win a free Hotsling! (And yeah, I get an extra entry for posting a link….) But still, easy contest, what the hell.

So, have any valuables or secrets you want locked up? Because apparently the safest place in the UNIVERSE is my uterus, as my cervix is (as I told jeanne in a text message) "like Ft fucking Knox."  LCTP: Long, Closed, Thick, Posterior. Motherfucker. (Or, i wish, I guess. Hee.)  NST was fine, the midwife thinks I’ve got an 8 lber growing in there (which would work with the u/s weight of last week, since babies gain about an ounce a day at this point…), and didn’t think induction was in order at this point. She was going to confer with my OB, and if there weas anything the OB has concerns about, she’d call me, but it’s been 3 hours and I haven’t heard anything, so I imagine I’m in the clear. Next appointment is next Friday, 40w. If I haven’t gone on my own by then, then we’ll start talking about induction.

My mom and sister and I have tickets to a play on Sunday, so there might be a Murphy’s Law induction just by virtue of that. Because, the way I see it, I could either go into labor before, and thus MISS the play, or, go into labor dramatically (har!) at the play, or go into labor while hanging out with my family, thereby totally blowing my Plan as spelled out in the "Back Off, MAN-ifesto," because shit, then they are HERE and they KNOW. Dave and I literally discussed the plan if that were to happen, which is that if they fiund out simply by virtue of being here, that does NOT mean that we then ‘have’ to tell the ILs.  Also, since my family does live two hours away, they aremore than welcome to stay in town to wait, but there is to be NO crowd of any type at the hospital. That freaks my shit out.

Last night at the grocery store, I looked over Dave’s shoulder and saw a product I’d never seen before: Cinnabon-in-a-can.  The whole GD thing has me drawn like a moth to a flame to such carby, sugary, awful-for-you-even-when-not-GD foods, so I pointed and gasped out loud. Dave looked at me and said, "WHAT? WHAT?" and I said "Cinnabon! In a can!" and Dave grabbed his chest, and leaned over and was all "JESUS, Gretchen, you can’t DO THAT to me." Oh. Heh. Guess he’s a little on edge about this whole "about to have wife go into labor" thing. I was DYING, and it took Dave a few minutes for the color to return to his face. He insists that I didn’t point, and that I also screwed up my face when I gasped, but I think he’s just so paranoid, he invented that part.

I’m really ready to meet this baby! Really!

If you want notification of widget-arrival options, go to the last post.

Okee, Dokee. First, our switch to different DSL is saving us a goodbit of money, but our connection is much wonkier, so if I’m IM’ing you, and sudenly disappear, I’m not being bitchy or suddenly in labor. It’s my ISP. Very annoying on this end, because I end up having this onesided convo for a few minutes before AIM realizes the conenction has dropped.  Bah. But, we’re saving money. We’re saving money.

8 days left, and today is gaaawwgeous. I will probably go to school in a while, to finish up my last networking project (last class was last night, so, YAY!) and get moving. My bum leg is still bumming, but the ball and Tylenol helps. I feel like such a loser taking a TYLENOL for a wonky leg, when I’m 8 days from trying to be all stoic and push a ham out of my vagina without ANY Tylenol at all. Yeah, I know.

So, despite frequent and thorough inspection of the TP, I’ve seen no mucus or blood or anything that even resembles anything that might indicate that MAYBE the baby is considering escape.  The whole TTC/pregnancy/etc thing is all about TP inspection, looking for EWCM, waiting for your period to NOT start, then fearing that it WILL, and nowwaiting for any fluid of any type that is different to come out.  Gross, but true.

THe baby is wiggling all around — I can FINALLY, at almost 39w, feel things beyond "Lump here, and lump there."  I’m pretty sure I could feel a leg, and last night a little knobby thing kept floating up, which I hope to god is a foot.  There’s also some migrating burny spots (Lola, it reminds me of your mysterious square inch, only mine shifts, it seems) that kind of suck, and the Braxton Hicks are frequent, but completely, totally, and you can laugh at this one, annoyingly NOT PAINFUL. Aren’t they supposed to GET painful? Doesn’t that HELP THINGS? Sigh.

ANother thing all you seasoned mamas can chortle at, is my new thought of "but, how will I know what a contraction IS?"  Okay, clean off your keyboards, blow your nose, etc…. I’m sure I’ll KNOW what a contraction is when it happens, but it’s very unnerving to just wonder, and be waiting for one to hit, and what if it happens when I’m out and it hurts REALLY FUCKING BAD, will I embarrass myself with my reaction? Sigh. 

I’m just really ready to meet the widget. I’m not terribly uncomfortable (minus the weird leg), and yeah, I’m peeing all the time, but then that means I get to to check the TP, so it isn’t that annoying (I KNOW, GROSS), but I’m just ready to meet this kid. I want to know what it is, to give it a name, to see who it looks like and hear it’s voice. Soooo ready. I almost can’t wait til my appointment tomorrow morning (around 10 am, EST) just to see if there’s any new information, or maybe another cervical check will dislodge something or whatever. SO. READY.

Updated to add two more notification possibilities:

The hospital website has an online nursery that is updated every few days, and for locals, the last five minutes of the local news at Dave’s station might be another avenue to be updated. (They are big on welcoming ‘new members of the station family,’ often with video.)

This is just me being geeky and listmaky, but since a few people have asked, here’s the notification breakdown, and I just thought I’d put it up for feedback or whatever:

Dave & I will call parents and siblings, and my grandparents.

Parents/sibs will take care of calling extended family (that sounds about right, right?)

Amy will call friends.

Those that are equipped will receive pic messages from my cameraphone. I have your numbers. (If I have your number and you can get and want pics, let me know! I only have three people that I know of so far that can get the messages.)

Mass email will be sent by Dave, from my address, with photo, most likely, and to anyone who wants it, as well as work/school people.

If you would like to be on the email list, send a message to snappity AT gmail DOT com . I will set up the message before we leave, BCC, so you’ll want to make sure that you can receive from that same address when it’s BCCed.

Blog update will happen when I’m home.

Am I leaving anything or anyone out?

Yeah, I counted wrong yesterday, so it’s actually ten days away. ALmost 9, since it’s almost 10 pm already. Uh, yeah.

I woke up this morning with a wicked pain in my left leg/hip. Not sciatic, but on the inside, where the leg meets the groin area. The bouncy ball felt pretty good, but walking did not. That, added in with the POURING rain, and knowing I’d be parking a jillion miles from my office, all added up to me staying at home until it was time for class, at which point I could park right at the building.

Before THAT, though, I actually went to the Olive Garden to sit at the bar and see Andy for the first time in WAY too long. I ordered the chicken caprese, ate a piece of chicken and the veggies, and boxed up the rest for Dave’s dinner. It was good to see Andy, and I gave him back his coat ("Figured I should give this back before we went to the car and were like ‘don’t ruin the leather seats! Here, sit on… this!") that he’d left in my car the LAST time I saw him.  After that, I went to Target and hobbled in far enough to buy shelf liner for the carseat (again, the leather seats are so slippery, that the recommendation is shelf liner to stabilize the carseat), and then to the natural food store to get more Red Raspberry Leaf tea.

Class was fine, I did a presentation on electronic gradebooks, making that one less project I have due. I still pretty much doubt that I will get the paper and portfolio done before I deliver, but I have the summer to finish up. I know that life with baby will be a whole new level of braindead distraction, but it WILL get done. Right?  Leaving class, I was full on LIMPING (totally uncomfortable chairs in that lab) and getting my bag out of the car made me yelp. Ugh.

More ball time, and dinner, and more RRL tea, and I’m about ready to turn in.  (I’m also very gassy this afternoon, hmm. I haven’t been gassy in quite a while, and maybe it’s the OG talking? Can gas be a prelabor symptom? I’ll take anything at this point.)

Yesterday was gorgeous here. Dave and I headed out to City Forest for a walk, and as we got back near the parking area, a woman on the next trail over yelled "GOOD FOR YOU!"  I looked around, and she waved frantically at me, yelling "IT MAKES IT EASIER!" and then gave me a big thumbs up. DAMN. If people got THAT kind of reception every time they took a walk, we’d have amuch healthier community.

When we got home, i called Jenne, who I hadn’t seen since my shower, and we went for lunch. BEST LUNCH EVER, considering it was the last day of the last month that I would NOT be someone’s mom… emerald curry, super spicy and with eggplant!, and then a scoop of coconut ice cream, borderline GD be damned, it was SEVENTY DEGREES.  It was good to catch up with Jenne, too. I’ve been trying to see my friends before the baby gets here — jess stopped by on Friday, I saw Deb last week, Jenne yesterday, up next is tracking down Andy who I haven’t seen in weeks, if not months.

We finished up the first half of the backyard (okay, DAVE did, and I held the bag open once), and Dave started in on the back half of the backyard, which is less of an issue than the first half. But, he ended up slicing his finger open with a pair of gardening shears, so after getting the bleeding to slow down, he decided to work on the carseat installation.

Now, if you know Dave, you know he’s Mr Safety. One of his other projects this weekend was to install a fire extinguisher in the upstairs hallway, and make sure I knew how to use it. But the carseat has been this weird issue for him — I sent him a bunch of links and videos on what to do, and it took him days to even look at them. And there was a big discussion on locking clips that was just… odd. Anyway, once he got started, he sort of ‘got it’ as to why I wanted it done before I’m in labor, since it’s still NOT done — we don’t have LATCH, for one, and the center position wasn’t working for the snugride, and I need to get shelf liner because we have leather seats, etc. But, it was just odd, likie installing the carseat was some weird mental-emotional hurdle of "OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO BE A DAD." Defendinghis home against fire has been an easy priority for years, but defending his baby against car accidents is TOTALLY NEW.

Annnnd, anyway, it’s May. I will have a baby this month. That is SO FUCKING WEIRD. Huh.

MIO = Meow It Out. I’m sure there’s lots of controversy on the subject, and damn if we didn’t try it anyway. 

See, our cat, the beloved FatKitty, has been cosleeping with Dave for all of her almost 12 years. She prefers the center position, stretched out lengthwise, head on Dave’s pillow, and will actually (I know, you can get ready to close your browswer on cuteness overload) spoon us. She loooooves her humans. Damn.

While we don’t plan on cosleeping in the first weeks (cosleeping here meaning, in the bed cosleeping, we will have a bassinet in our room, right next to me) because of Dave’s nervousness (despite, as I mentioned, never once rolling over on to the cat in 12 years) I anticipate it happening anyway, fairly soon. I would never do something that made Dave nervous, but I think that once the baby is here, he’ll realize that it would be damn hard to roll over on your own baby if you weren’t drunk or high or morbidly obese (the usual causes of such tragedies). In preparation, i thought maybe we should work on training the cat to sleep outside of our bedroom. Yeah, that’ll work.

In fairness, though, the few nights before her time in our bed had suddenly dropped off, by her choice — one night she didn’t come in at all! I wondered if it was because she senses some change afoot, and was trying to cut herself off.  So we closed the door when we went to bed on Friday night, and hoped for the best. Instead, we got one pissed off kitty pawing at the door with BOTH PAWS (so, she had to get off her fat ass and stand on her HIND legs, which is way mor effort than she usually expends) for about 10 minutes straight before we relented and let her in. She immediately got into her spot and purred loudly for a looonnnggg time, probably thinking "Oh my god, you’re ALIVE! I thought you’d been murdered in your sleep!"  Last night, she was there for almost the whole night, longer than she’d been last week, no doubt traumatized by the thought of a hollow-core door separating her from her humans.

So, fellow cat-owners, etc, how was the transition for your pets to having a baby in the house? I’m not worried about her ‘getting in the crib’ or even the bassinet, because she is simply too FAT to jump that high. We could put a side of salmon in the crib, and she’d die trying to get in, but she’d never make it. But, we also don’t plan on using the crib right away, either. I imagine that once the baby is here, it will be a whole lot easier to throw the cat out into the hall at night, if necessary, even though right now it feels a little like putting Granny in a home and driving off without looking back.