38 Weeks

Posted on 06/18/2009 by chick

38 weeks. Our baby could arrive any time. I’m happy/sad/anxious/excited, all over the emotional map.

We’re not ready.

We’ll never be ready.

But he’s on the way. It’s just a matter of time. It might be today, next week, or next month, but soon we’re going to have a bouncing baby boy.

Faithful Reader’s father said, “Definitely Sunday.” He also said it would definitely be a girl. True, he probably said that to prepare himself in case it was a girl, because he wanted a boy so badly, but he still said it and so we can’t trust his precognitive abilities.

My doctor will be on vacation next week, so I think the baby will arrive then (but later in the week than Sunday). I don’t want a complete stranger delivering my baby, which is why it’s so likely. That’s ok, though. On the bright side, it will give me a few more days to prepare myself mentally, but I won’t have to keep carrying the baby into July. Being pregnant in July sounds incredibly undesirable at this point. I am huge and feeling it and ready (physically) to get the little guy out of me.

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Positive Thinking

Posted on 06/17/2009 by chick

I’ve been in a bad mood lately. The stress of pregnancy, the anticipation of childbirth, the continuing mess that is our house, the horrible stories in the news…all have combined to leave me feeling more than just blah. Today, as I lay in bed for a few extra hours thinking about things, I decided that I need to cheer myself up. So join me as I think about some of the good things in my life right now.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the cats are free. This is a wonderful thing for two reasons. One, the cats are happier and two, their former prison has been miraculously transformed into a nursery. The paint color we chose for the nursery is beautiful. The furniture looks good in there. Once the smell of paint is gone, perhaps a day or two more, I can go in and start nesting like a proper expectant mother.

I’m now officially on maternity leave. I have been needing to take some time off from work for years, but it just hasn’t happened. Now I finally can. It won’t be the freewheeling time I had planned previously, but it will give me a chance to bond with my baby, and I’m thankful that I can afford to take so much unpaid leave. A lot of people can’t.

Having been through a couple of 90+ degree days earlier this year, I was worried that the last couple of months of pregnancy would be miserable, but the weather this spring has been unusually cool and comfortable.

I have had a worry-free, textbook pregnancy. No gestational diabetes, no preeclampsia. I have been spared many of the typical discomforts, such as heartburn and varicose veins. In some ways, my health has even improved. I’m less short of breath now and have better digestion than before the pregnancy.  My health insurance has also been covering my bills.

The house sometimes drives me crazy. It still has so many problems, but there are a lot of positives about it, too. I like our well water, the house stays cool downstairs even on hot days, the parts of the house that are finished look very good, and Nature is all around us. Some people wouldn’t appreciate the closeness of Nature, but Faithful Reader and I like to discover new plants and animals. I found a blueberry bush on our property just the other day. That made me happy. So did the three-foot snake that kept me from investigating the bush too closely. Snakes are cool.

That’s enough positive thinking for now. Thanks for listening. I’m feeling a little better now.

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Mystery Flower #10

Posted on 06/16/2009 by chick

Earlier today I convinced my Faithful Reader to take me for a walk so I could check out the wild roses.

Wild roses growing in abundance are like scented snowbanks in June.

But wild roses weren’t the only pretty flowers out today. Say hello to Mystery Flower #10.

mystery-flower-10

Can you guess its identity?

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Thank You, Thank You

Posted on 06/14/2009 by chick

Last Sunday night I finally finished writing the thank-you notes for the baby shower. I had had to do most of the writing at night after work, which wasn’t fun. Personalizing them took forever. I also didn’t want to waste any cards, so I had to do a rough draft for each one first and then carefully copy it onto the card. It took many days to do them all.

And they weren’t done yet, really. It wasn’t until Thursday that we got all of the addresses and dealt with all the spelling inconsistencies found in our address book. Jesse should be Jessie and Araci should be Aracy. And what of Piadad? Well, that may be how everyone has been spelling her name, but it is clearly not how she spells it herself. If only her handwriting were clear enough for us to be sure what the right way is. Then there are all the Marias who go by other names. Talk about confusing. With Faithful Reader’s help, I addressed the cards as best I could and then he mailed them for me. I felt a huge weight lifted from my back.

Writing thank-you notes is a real pain, but I am sincerely grateful for all of the gifts. Baby got a lot of stuff that he needed and buying it all ourselves would have been much more painful than writing thank-yous.

Thank you, thank you!

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The Cats Are Free

Posted on 06/13/2009 by chick

We let the cats free last Saturday so the nursery could be painted.

Zoulie, traumatized, has spent most of her time since hanging around the top of the stairs, crying for attention, hiding where possible. On her first day of freedom, she wedged herself in the space between the wall and the mini fridge and could not get out. Pathetic.

Mojo is so happy that he trills and rubs against my legs every time he sees me.

Peeps doesn’t seem to trust her good luck, but rather runs away every other time she sees me, perhaps worried that she’ll be thrown back into her prison.

Two out of three of them clearly prefer the dusty, cold cement floors of the unfinished downstairs to the warm, comfy carpet of their old home. Cats are stupid that way. They’d rather be uncomfortable if it means they can do as they please.

As for their old home, it was FILTHY. Vacuuming hadn’t really been a possibility when all the boxes were in the room. Once they were removed, you could see the film of cat hair that lay upon the exposed parts of the carpet. Litter abounded and the smell of cat was unbearable. I went in there armed with a vacuum cleaner with a dirt sensor, and I did not come back out again for at least a half an hour.

What have they done with their new home? Well, we’ve already learned that they cannot be trusted with a loose bag of trash. Shredded. We should have known that, given how Peeps always tips over any waste-paper basket she finds. I guess she just loves trash. They also cannot be trusted to stay out of the sink. There are paw marks all over the kitchen. They have all, I am sure, discovered the dirtiest parts of the house and are conscientiously spreading the dirt around more evenly. That is how much they love us.

The cats are dirty but the nursery is clean and almost ready for Baby!

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37 Weeks

Posted on 06/13/2009 by chick

I’ve fallen behind on blogging again. Today actually marks 38 weeks, but I don’t want to omit a post about the milestone that was 37 weeks. It was the week that baby was finally considered full-term, when he could have popped out at any moment and hollered at the top of his fully-formed lungs.

A milestone it may have been, but it was a scary one. With every cramp or Braxton-Hicks, I wondered, is it time?

Is it time?

Is it time?

Still waiting, still wondering…

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Until Next Year

Posted on 06/02/2009 by chick

My mom usually gets me a big basket of Easter candy, but not this year. She knew I was pregnant and that babies don’t need a lot of chocolate. She did get me a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs, though. Those are my favorite.

I had to behave for Baby’s sake. It was hard limiting myself to only a couple of those delicious sugar-shelled eggs per day, especially knowing that every passing day gave Faithful Reader more time to dip into the bag, and dip he did. Yesterday, I opened the bag and there were only two little eggs left. I love my Faithful Reader so much, chocolate thief though he may be, that I saved the last one for him. He ate it, and now only an empty bag remains. The bag smells so sweet and yummy that I almost don’t want to throw it away. I will, of course, but first I must say good-bye.

Good-bye, Mini Eggs. Until next year, when I will eat as many of you as I want!

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My Own Reward

Posted on 06/01/2009 by chick

I’ve never believed that tripe about virtue being its own reward. To me, one of the saddest things about this world is that if you don’t get things done, eventually someone will come along and tell you what a lazy and/or incompetent ass you are, but getting things done usually doesn’t earn you so much as a thank you. There’s always criticism and rarely approbation.  That’s why we have to make our own rewards.

It was a long day for me. I started working as soon as I got up. After working a full day, I went downstairs, cleaned and unpacked in the kitchen, and did a couple of loads of laundry. Then I made and ate dinner, which I followed up with a long session of thank-you note writing. It’s after 10:30 now and I’m only just now taking a break. Does anyone say, “Good for you, and you did it all while hauling around a growing baby!”? Of course not. And that’s why I found my own small personal reward for the day, buttered raisin-bread toast. Yummy.

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36 Weeks

Posted on 05/31/2009 by chick

I spoke to my brother on the phone a few weeks ago. We see each other a couple of times a year, but never call each other, so it was unusual, but a nice surprise when he called. We chitchatted for a while, even about some things beside the baby, but the baby does have a way of making itself topic #1. During our talk, my brother likened a pregnant woman’s bellybutton to a turkey timer. I thought that was funny then. Now I think it’s almost a little scary, because if it’s true, then this turkey is just about done.

My own foolish talk has got everyone thinking that the baby is going to be born early. At the shower, I said that I felt like I was so big that I wouldn’t make it all the way to my due date. My mother latched on to that idea. She called me earlier this week because she thought I had a doctor’s appointment and wanted to know if the doctor had said anything about the baby coming early. Now my husband’s getting in on it, too. After admiring my belly out in the full sunlight, he said, “There’s no way you’re going to carry that for another 4 weeks!”

I am carrying large, it’s true, but I don’t know that there’s any statistical link between carrying large and early childbirth, except maybe in the case of twins. Knowing my luck, I’ll have to carry him an extra two weeks, which would bring us into the hot months of July. Eesh. Well, it’s not like it’s my call. I’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I just hope he’s born healthy, that’s all.

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Insurance Woes

Posted on 05/27/2009 by chick

I got some bad news today. I asked how much it would cost to add my baby to my health insurance. I am still stunned at the answer. He will cost almost as much per month as a car payment and he will double my already astronomical deductible.

Is it any wonder there are so many Americans without health insurance?

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