Leap Year, Childbirth Class 5 and Great Big Diamond Rings

Once every 4 years, we actually have a February 29th. Enjoy it, people. This day won't come again until 2012. And a special Happy Birthday to Liberty, who gets to celebrate her big day on her actual birthday this year! Rock on with your bad self, leap year.

Last night was our final childbirth class. We noticed at least two of the couples were not there, suggesting, I assume, that they'd already had the real graduation: the baby. Crazy. We primarily covered all the postpartum stuff, and had a quick review of the labor process. And with that, we were done. No more classes. Just waiting for the test...

As we enter the last few weeks, I've had some very slight swelling in my hands. Well, this morning my wedding ring wouldn't fit. So I put it on the chain around my neck. When Ryan came home and picked me up for lunch, he decided it was time to buy me a fake ring in a bigger size. It's pretty big and blingy, ha ha, but it's nice to wear a ring that fits. :)

yeah, that's all I got.

Playing Footsie

I have strange feet. This is new, and of course, like everything these days, pregnancy related. I may have already mentioned that when my feet swell, it's really just my right foot. So I get one puffy foot and sexy cankle, and one normal foot. Well, my left foot was feeling a little left out. But like a twin (a topic I know well), my left foot wanted something else to set it apart. And so, my arch seems to be collapsing on the left foot. I'm getting one flat foot and one puffy foot. Way to go, feet! Way to set yourselves apart!

We have a full week and weekend ahead. Tonight, Ryan is taking a tactical firearms course with his dad. This is a hobby I wasn't particularly familiar with until I moved to Bakersfield. But what can I say? My husband digs special forces skills. At least I feel profoundly protected. :) Tomorrow night is our last childbirth class. I can't believe those classes are ending. I feel a little like I'm graduating from Pregnancy U. Then, Saturday is the local/family baby shower. As I mentioned in my last blog, I really can't wait for that! But we have a lot of family coming in from out of town, so it'll make for a full weekend, not just a couple hours at a shower.

It's nice to have a lot on our plates. It makes the time go faster, which is becoming one of my main priorities as I get a little more uncomfortable every day. :) It's really not miserable, exactly; it's just a little annoying. I'm reminded a little more every day of things I miss, like certain sleep positions, a refreshing alcoholic beverage and sushi. Knowing they're just around the corner makes me want them more!

The stats: I'm 35 1/2 - 36 weeks pregnant. Wyatt's due date is 4 - 4 1/2 weeks away. My dream would be to have him in 2 - 2 1/2 weeks, haha. And since I totally have control over that, I'm sure it'll go exactly as planned. (Insert naive 4-year-old grin here.)

Gettin' Dolled Up

I got out of the shower this morning, looked in the mirror, and made a decision. I'm getting my hair done, and I'm getting it done today. What we see here is very similar to the need for a pedicure I mentioned a few days ago. I do, after all, still have my hair. In fact, it may actually be better than my pre-pregnancy hair. And so, let's improve it, shall we? Generally, my sister-in-law does my hair. She does an awesome job. But today, I just decided I wanted to pamper myself a little, and I wanted to do it last minute. So that means I have to pay the big bucks. :) And of course, the fact that my Bakersfield baby shower is on Saturday is another good reason to get rid of the drab dark roots. Yes? Yes.

Speaking of the baby shower, I'm really looking forward to it. I had an awesome one with my friends in LA just over a month ago. The one on Saturday will encompass both my and Ryan's families as well as my friends who live locally. The closer I get to my due date, the antsier I get about being prepared for a baby. I feel a little like I can't really finish nesting until I know where I stand in the baby gear department! Ryan and I will do a big trip to Babies R Us to buy whatever we still need after the shower. I'll probably drag him there the very next day.

I'm also going to start packing my hospital bag today. I'm sure we still have at least a couple weeks if not considerably more before Wyatt makes his debut, but every now and then, women go into labor early, so I feel like maybe I should be prepped for that, too. Yeah... like I said... nesting.

The stats: Today I'm roughly 35 - 35 1/2 weeks pregnant. That leaves 4 1/2 - 5 weeks until my due date. Anyone want to start a pool on when he's actually gonna come??

Childbirth Class 4: The Tour

You know, there's something a little eerie about being on your hospital tour with your childbirth class and finding out that there's someone there in labor from your class who's just as far along as you are. Then you look to your left and the girl you're standing next to mentions that her doc told her she's 3 1/2 cm dilated already. It gets your brain going. This is really happening. Soon.

Hmmm, what to say about the tour... The labor rooms are big. They're pretty nice for hospital rooms, but you know, it's still a hospital. :) The recovery rooms are tiny, but I guess that's the case at most hospitals. I'm hoping to spend a minimum amount of time there anyway. I feel more comfortable being familiar with the place, but it also has my head spinning!

So, that's it. Nothing all that interesting today. Still, I'd gotten all worked up about going to do the hospital tour, so I figured I'd better at least mention it in my blog. And so, here it is. Peace out.

Bellies, Boobies and Toes.

Yesterday was a Wyatt day. I had my last non-invasive prenatal appointment (meaning I got to keep my clothes on), and I had a breastfeeding class. I also got a pedicure, which I'll attribute to Wyatt too, because it helped out a little with the look and feel of my semi-swollen feet.



Let's start with the appointment, shall we? My blood pressure remains low, so no signs of preeclampsia. My uterus (belly) is measuring right on target. Wyatt's heartbeat is strong and steady as always. The baby's head is down. He's locked and loaded for final approach. At my next appointment, I'll get tested for Group B strep. (I'm crossing my fingers it comes back negative, because I really don't want to have to have antibiotics during labor, due to the increased possibility of later problems like thrush.) I'll also have my first pelvic exam since my first trimester. The doc will check my cervix for changes like dilation and effacement. That's pretty crazy to think about. I keep calling this the home stretch, but DANG, that's the home stretch...



And now on to the breastfeeding class. It was actually part one of a two part class, which I didn't know going in. This class was called "Getting Started". It was actually really informative and answered a lot of questions I didn't really know I had. So, while I certainly don't claim to be an expert now, I do feel comfortable that I'll have a better experience than I would have otherwise. So, you know, there's that. It is pretty comical how many classes I've been taking in order to prepare for this kid! I was talking to my grandmama on the phone yesterday about it, and she's pretty amused. When she was having her babies, she just had her mom and grandma there for a month to train her in everything she needed to know. But these are different times. Support networks work differently, so I guess we have to educate ourselves differently.



Lastly, let's talk toes. I have long, thin toes. I've always liked my feet because of them. I guess it's because "long and thin" is a lot like "tall and thin". And since the "thin" in that phrase isn't really guaranteed in other parts of the body without work, ha ha, I'm grateful for my skinny toes. Well, I got a pedicure yesterday in "hooker red" as my husband so delicately puts it, to highlight the last remaining skinny part of my expanding bod. Because, alas, even my pretty feet have begun the swelling adventure, now, and my toes are all I have left!



The stats: I'm 34 1/2 - 35 weeks preggo, depending on the source. 5 - 5 1/2 weeks until the infamous due date. Bring it on. I'm ready for other parts of my body to match my toes again...

A Year in the Life...

Yesterday, Ryan and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. It's seriously hard to believe it has already been a year since our wedding. (Although my ridiculously large belly suggests otherwise. This is certainly not the body I had a year ago.) Intuitively, I'd say we've been married for about four or five months. But then I think about everything that's happened in the last twelve months, and I obviously reevaluate. We bought a new house, found renters for our old house, got pregnant and got a "family" car (a Yukon). That's kind of a lot of changes in a small amount of time! Ha ha, did you see how a year went from a long time to hardly any time at all there? Yeah... trippy. Anyway, we had a very nice anniversary. Very low key, but lovely. Maybe one of these years, when I'm not with child, we'll do a big trip or something. This year, however, low key was perfect.

Tomorrow night, I have yet another class related to becoming a new mom. It's a breastfeeding class. I clearly have no experience in this department, but I know it's a lot trickier for new moms to master than many of them expect. I figure I should probably educate myself in order to avoid too much frustration. I like to think it'll come naturally to me, but then again, I like to tell myself labor will be a simple process, too. So I'm clearly already delusional.

Today I'm 34 weeks and 2 days pregnant. That puts my (furthest away) due date in 5 weeks and 5 days. In my childbirth class, the instructor stresses that a first baby usually comes between 40 and 42 weeks. But since we've already established that I'm delusional, I'm gonna claim 38 weeks. So expect Wyatt in around 3 1/2 weeks. I realize that mind over matter did nothing for me during the first trimester when I was sick and exhausted, and it hasn't done a thing to prevent stretch marks, leg cramps, or back aches. But this is different. I swear. :)

The Basics. (Because it's that cut and dry.)

Tonight, Ryan and I are going to take a Basic Baby Care class with some friends of ours. It's a three hour class, and I'm curious to know what they're going to cover. I imagine the "basics" will include glamorous topics like diaper changing, umbilical cord stump care, and in our case, circumcision care. (I know this has turned into a more debated topic than it used to be, but for us, there was never really a question.) How to bathe your baby... How to burp your baby... etc.

It's funny. You can take classes to learn the mechanics of caring for a new baby, but that's not the same thing as learning how to be a parent. That's the more ambiguous part. I used to laugh when people would say, "Babies need to come with an instruction manual." After all, aren't these classes and all those books like What to Expect the First Year exactly that? Oh, but as the idea of a baby coming into our home gets closer and closer to reality, I'm gaining a little more perspective on what that means. The classes and books can't teach you responsibility, or how to love no matter what. Childcare? Absolutely. Parenthood? No.

And now for a complete 180. Politics. Being pretty moderate and about as close as you can get to an Independent without giving up the right to vote in a California primary, I rarely broach the topic. Even today, I'm not going to endorse anyone or take on any major issues. But I do have a small gripe with the Democratic party that I'd like to address. Super delegates. What's the point? Who came up with this brilliant set up? I think the idea of super delegates (especially having over 700 of them) is ridiculous. It has nothing to do with my specific political views, per se, but it does say something about the flaws in our systems... Yeah, anyway, just thinking...

Today I'm 33 1/2 weeks pregnant (or 34 weeks based the last two ultrasounds). 6 - 6 1/2 weeks until our due date. Tick, tick, tick.

Changing Formats

Guess what I found out. When you try to compartmentalize your life into two separate blogs, and you've already had issues getting motivated to write, you end up giving up on the harder blog. (In case there's any question, this was the harder one. It requires effort to ignore a pregnancy and admit failure when the professional side of things takes a bit of a tumble.) And so, I'm merging the blogs. My apologies to anyone who was hoping to avoid talk of pregnancy and babies! But alas, it grows into a bigger piece of my pie all the time. I can no longer avoid it. I'll try really hard to at least maintain some balance. We'll see... :)

I'm going to post my last three Myspace blogs below, just so you're caught up (if you want to be). After that, the two blogs will probably mirror each other. The only difference is that I think I'm planning to post more pictures on this one. We'll see how that goes... So, here's the review of past musings, from oldest to newest. (So you don't have to read backwards.)

Friday, Feb 1, 2008

Childbirth Class 2, Massage and Music

Well, last night was our second childbirth class. It was much more of what I was expecting (and hoping for) in a childbirth class. So I guess the first one was just a soft intro. Last night we learned all about the childbirth process, watched the standard videos (much to Ryan's chagrin) and practiced different techniques for dealing with labor. It also made me realize that despite the pain, I want to try to go as long as I can without getting an epidural. I'm not going to beat myself up if I decide to get one, but I do want to hold off as long as humanly possible. Mainly, because I don't want it to slow down my labor, and I want to be able to stay mobile for as long as possible for the sake of gravity and all that. So I've kind of come full circle even from where I stood on it a week ago! I also found it interesting that according to our instructor (who's employed by our hospital), only about half of their labor and delivery patients get epidurals. That's really low by most hospital's standards, so they must really support natural labor there. (That or her numbers are wrong.) Anyway, food for thought.

On another topic (kind of), I got my first prenatal massage today. Heaven. Pure heaven. And Lorre, my massage therapist, told me she knows the right pressure points for getting labor started. So I scheduled another massage for 2 weeks before my due date. :) I have every intention of requesting that she hit those pressure points! By 38 weeks, I'll be ready, and so will Wyatt.

Lastly, Ryan and I are going to a George Strait concert up in Fresno tonight. I think it'll be fun. He's just one of those musicians who can put on a great show. I know a lot of you aren't country fans, but even then, you'd probably enjoy it. He's kind of a cultural icon, ya know?
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm also going to my great aunt Joan's memorial service tomorrow morning. But that's more of a sad topic, so I don't think I'll say much about that.

I'll be 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow. Wow.

Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008

A Passing, Among Other Things...

My grandma passed away yesterday. She's the first of my grandparents to pass, and I just wasn't expecting it. I knew her health had been declining, but somehow it just didn't occur to me that it would happen this soon. I don't really have a lot to say, but it's kind of a surreal time in life to be going to funerals. I guess the whole 'circle of life' concept comes into play here, but it's never really that simple, is it?

We're expecting Wyatt to make his appearance in around 7 1/2 weeks, give or take. Needless to say, the method of his exit has been running around, knocking things over in my head lately. I still have an ideal in mind, of course. I vote that he comes about 2 weeks early, weighs in the 6lb. range, and comes quickly, easily, and without incident. Which is, of course, totally typical for a first baby... ha. Yeah, well... a girl can dream.

Ryan is going to be out of town this weekend. He's meeting up with his friend Josh (who lives in Redding) up in Carmel. It's going to be a mix of your basic guy time, plus some accountability and motivation for both life and business. They're planning to get together on a somewhat regular basis, which I think is great. And of course, I'm calling in reinforcements for my time alone. Andrea is coming to visit Friday night through Sunday morning, and Talitha and baby Riley might be coming Saturday night through Sunday. I'm looking forward to some quality girl time, either way.

Friday, Feb 8, 2008

Childbirth Class 3 and Weekend Plans

Three down. Two to go. We have a break next week because our class would have landed on Valentine's Day. I guess the assumption is, if you're knocked up, odds are you either have a Valentine to celebrate with or you'll be too busy making a voodoo doll of whoever formerly played that role to be bothered with a childbirth class that day. But anyway, it was another pretty useful class last night. We went over the stages of labor, specifically early labor and when to go to the hospital. We also went over different forms of breathing (questionable...I'll let you know when I'm actually in labor and don't just have a clothes pin on my ear) and some massage stuff. So yeah... it's starting to get real. I'm excited, but I'm also getting nervous...

I'll be 33 weeks tomorrow. 7 weeks to go, give or take.

In other news, Andrea is coming to Bakersfield to hang out with me this weekend! Ryan is on his way up to Carmel Valley even as we speak to meet up with his buddy Josh, who lives in Redding. So it'll be nice to have a friend in town, for sure. I'm taking Andrea with me up to Fresno, where we're having sort of a "celebration of life" get together with my family to remember my grandma. She didn't want a funeral or memorial service, so we decided just getting the family together to honor her and for a certain level of closure would probably be a good idea. It should be pretty casual, but I'm happy Andrea will be with me. I told Ryan not to cancel his trip. He only met Nonna twice, and he's been planning this trip for months. It would be different if it was an official funeral or memorial service, but since this is kind of an impromptu get-together, it's different.

But anyway, other than that, I'm just really looking forward to a girl weekend. :) Maybe we'll catch a chick flick or get pedicures or go shopping. All of the above? Perhaps. Complete veg-fest? Perhaps.