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Yep, I’m still here. No squalling infant as of yet. I’m wicked tired of being pregnant. The blood flow issues make it really hard for me to sit in any position for very long, and sometimes even wake me up at night (not that I’m not waking up every hour or two anyway). I’m going to talk to my doctor about it tomorrow. I’m also totally going to let her do the dilation thing. Bring it on.
I’ve been drinking raspberry leaf tea, talking walks, anything I can come up with that might stimulate labor. I get really strong braxton-hicks contractions when I walk, but they subside when I sit down again. Walking is not comfortable, but then nothing is comfortable.
I feel somewhat isolationist these days. Most people have been really supportive, but I still get way too many comments along the lines of, “you have no idea how crazy it’s going to be after you have the baby” (yes, I know I don’t know since I don’t have one, thanks for that insight), and “you think you’re sleep deprived now…” (useful, as what I need is extra dread right now) and various creepy or frightening tidbits from their own or others’ birth stories (re: don’t need any more dread or anticipation, kthanxbye). If you know a very pregnant lady, please try to limit your comments to supportive and encouraging things unless they specifically ask. Trust me on this.
/end bitching
Anyway, I’m in that final phase of pregnancy where the desire to be not pregnant any more starts to far outweigh any fear of giving birth or anticipation of immanent parenthood. Adding to my stress, I’m pretty sure she’s facing the wrong direction (out instead of in) which does not bode well for easy labor. She did a rotaty thing a few weeks ago when I felt like she had dropped, and then she did it again a week ago. Now I’m afraid she doesn’t have enough room to spin around again and I’m in for back labor. Let’s hope not. Even that I’d welcome at this point, as I just want to be NOT PREGNANT really soon. Time to drink some more tea and take another walk.
I’ve got a few items left I need (which never seem to be in stock) and up until yesterday I had some giftcard money left.
Until a few days ago I had not bought a single stitch of clothing for the baby. People have gotten us really cute stuff, and we had a good base of hand me downs to start with.
But that has all changed.
Now I can’t stay away from the Carter’s sale stuff every time I walk in the door. I realized I had tons of onesies and pajamas, but no dresses for the first few months, and it will soon be hotter than hell in Austin which means when she needs to look dressed, a dress should be nice and cool. (In reality, she’ll probably wear a tee shirt and diaper for most of the summer, it’s too dang hot for anyone to put much on.) So I was forced to buy this:
 and these:
 Holy crap, how cute are those? So cute. And then I saw a version of this:
 But mine is blue with little anime-looking pandas, and a panda butt. Panda butt! Seriously, would you be able to resist panda butt? I think not. Five bucks! Plus these puppies are supposed to be awesome for the quick change, but look a little bit more dressed than a onesie. If they are as advertised, I will need more of them.
So I’m banned. Restricted. Not allowed in the door.
We’ll see how long that lasts.
So things have been progressing. Some of the details of which I’ll spare you, some not.
We went to birthing class last week which didn’t suck as badly as the childcare class, but still consisted of 3 FREAKING HOURS of lecture. Did I mention that I have trouble sitting for long periods of time? Yeah. The hands on bit (massage, breathing techniques) was okay, but fairly wimpy compared to stuff I’ve learned in yoga. I kind of wish I’d signed up for Bradley technique which is a longer class that covers a lot more visualization and stuff. But one of my yoga friends said her teacher is fairly militant about the no medical intervention thing, which can totally suck it as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, bridge. Water.
That night things started to happen (again no details on this one because ew) and we started to freak out a bit. But since then signs (one massive contraction that woke me up a couple nights ago) but no dice. Today at my appointment my OB said I was 70-80% effaced, but still only 1cm dilated. So we’ve gone from “any time now” to “why aren’t you in labor yet?” And then the not fun part: she tried to forcibly dilate me, claiming there was a band around my cervix that was inhibiting it. OW. OW OW OW. That was no fun. She thinks that if I was dilating I’d be in labor. Anyway, she eventually gave up (after much protestation and traumatizing my husband) and said that I was ready to go, and if I hadn’t by next week she was going to attack my cervix for real. Oh goody.
So now I’m trying all of the self-inducement stuff. Walking, squats, pressure points. I’ve got a massage on Thursday (hopefully, I was supposed to have it today and it was canceled) and I’m going to ask her to go to town on those pressure points. Let’s get this show on the road!
So 37 weeks is considered full term. I saw my OB today and everything is pretty much the same as it was last time. Belly is a little bigger, I may be about 1cm dialated, and 60% or so effaced. I’m officially in the “could happen any time” zone and the doc is still predicting I won’t go the full 40 weeks. Collective fingers crossed on that one, please.
I’m still having the same list of complaints, but everything is marginally worse. My fingers are more numb, hands are more swollen (feet are a little better), sleeping is getting more and more difficult, more hip pain at night, more heartburn, and mostly more exhaustion. I wear out fast. Being awake makes me tired. Some days are better than others, though, and I have some latent nesting instinct that’s making me organize my closet. So that’s good, I guess. Also, most nights I have some Braxton-Hicks contractions and let me just say, do not eat a large meal if you’re having those. Not. Good.
The glider arrived this weekend so the nursery is pretty much complete. I also got a cool floor lamp. Pictures when it’s all cleaned up and pretty. David’s work threw us a shower on Monday and they got us this wicked cool baby food maker that I’m excited to try out as soon as she’s able to start on solids.
The other thing I’ve been dealing with is having high blood pressure at the doctor’s office. But since my doc asked me to take my BP at home every other day and it’s been pretty much normal, she’s refrained from diagnosing me with preeclampsia. This is a good thing. I tried drinking tea and meditating before my appointment today but to no avail, it was still a good bit higher than at home. But I think I’ve found the cure for all stress-related problems. Let me know if it works for you.
 Today I’m 36 weeks pregnant, and man can I feel it. I get tired out very easily. Other complaints continue to include wooziness, swollen hands and feet, carpal tunnel, numb fingers, and general had-enoughidness.
We took our baby care class last weekend. The first thing they showed was a video from the 80s on the effects of lack of attachment between infants and parents. It was creepy and depressing, and included footage of miserable unsocialized monkey babies and near catatonic children raised by depressed moms. Don’t ever watch it, especially when you’re pregnant. Sheesh. Other than that it was okay. We got to see a little bit of the Happiest Baby on the Block dvd which we actually have but haven’t watch yet. That dude is like the Baby Whisperer. Very worth the watch. They left out some stuff like info on all-in-one diapers – they only talked about cloth with diaper service which is as expensive as disposables. I think we’re going to start with disposables but try out some all in ones when she’s big enough.
We’ve got one more shower, at David’s work, on Monday and then we’ll need to pick up the few things we still need to get started. In the meantime I’m catching up with as many friends as possible before the baby happens and napping as much as possible in between.
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