38 weeks!

Another busy week, preparing for the little guy's arrival! His room went from an in-use guest room to a fully organized nursery in about 8 days! Danielle helped me paint last Thursday (THANK YOU!), I steamed cleaned on Friday, Jack set up the crib and dresser/changer combo on Saturday while I started organizing. Sunday we hunted for a glider. I really liked this one from Target and we had enough in gift cards to cover it. We went to our local store and went to the checkout with the little tag. They sent us to guest services to make sure they had it in stock. Turned out they didn't have any in stock and didn't have any idea when they'd get a new shipment. It cost $93 in shipping if we bought it online - not really an option. They also looked up the other local stores all the way to about 100 mile radius and said no one else had it either. We left pretty deflated. But I checked when we got home and online it said the Niskayuna store had one so we called and they had 1 in stock!!! They pulled it aside for us and we picked it up later that night. Thank you Jesus!!! On Monday I did all the baby laundry - washed all the clothes, towels and blankets. So the nursery is completely set up, although we'd still like to decorate the walls a bit more. Here are some pictures!














Nesting is in full swing. I have ignored the hairs sticking up on my neck when I pass the dust bunnies on the stairs since I made my focus finishing the baby room before moving on to other things. I am very much looking forward to steam cleaning downstairs!

I had an appointment with the midwife yesterday. I was a little nervous that after all the activity I felt with the little guy in the past week that he may have flipped over. Well he hasn't, phew! He's still head down, but not very low in the pelvis so she said I'll probably see my due date! That's fine with me, we get to celebrate Jack's birthday and our anniversary before then and it's only 2 weeks away!

We had our last childbirth prep class last night - this time it was baby basics. One of the fathers in our class came in late to inform us that his wife gave birth a few hours earlier! She was due this Thursday anyway so we didn't think they'd make it to the last class. He told us about their experience. She had gone to work that morning like any other day and thought she might be having contractions and he picked her up from work late afternoon. By the time they decided to go to the hospital, she was already 8 cm dilated when they got there! She ended up delivering within about an hour of getting there!! He kept telling us how much easier it is than we're all thinking it will be. Of course that's not the case for everyone, but we're happy that they had such a relatively easy birth experience! After he headed back upstairs we each got a somewhat proportionally appropriate doll (would be about a 9 pounder if it were real). We got to practice with our car seats, practice swaddling and changing a diaper. Of course Jack would be the one picking up the doll by the head and unswaddling it by tugging on the corner of the blanket like he were trying to remove a tablecloth without disturbing the place settings on the table. I know he'll be better with our baby though. So next time we head to that building, it'll be the real deal!

37 Weeks!

It's been a busy week! My baby shower was on Sunday as I mentioned in the previous post. I have enjoyed writing the thank you notes on my belly-desk, although it moves sometimes! The furniture arrived so we picked that up on Monday night. And now we're looking at repainting the baby room. The furniture and bedding we picked out goes much better with green than with yellow, so we're going to have a big project weekend between painting and assembling the furniture! I'm so excited for it! It's making everything all that much more real!

I have been loving the hot tub lately (not too hot of course!). The jets in one of the seats perfectly melt away all the back pain of the day, and the weightlessness does wonders for my hips. Nothing new from my appointment yesterday.

We had our last childbirth class last night (next week is infant care). She went over "detours" you can take during labor, including the ultimate detour - c-section. Instead of showing us another gory video, she actually had us do a mock c-section. One of the couples in our class is scheduled for one on Monday because her baby is breech, so she had the husband act as the pregnant woman to give him a taste of what she'll be going through. She picked the wife to be the doctor and had other volunteers for anesthesiologist, pediatrics nurse, and other parts in the play. She had the "patient" lay down on a row of chairs and everyone stand around him with surgical masks on, and walked through all the steps that take place. It was definitely informative and fun at the same time. We're very glad we ended up taking the class. It was so much more than breathing and relaxation exercises. Even the stuff we already knew was good to hear again, and we both learned more. So we'll only be in that building one more time before the big day!

So the little guy is considered full-term as of today. It's so weird to think it could happen any day, but it could also happen 5 more weeks from now!

Baby Shower!

My mom and sisters put on a wonderful baby shower for me yesterday at my sister Ginger's house. It was so great to see so many people there who are so special to me. We were blessed with a lot of great gifts for the little guy... he's so spoiled already! Thank you to everyone for making it such a wonderful day!

Here are a few of the pictures. You can view my public album on facebook.

Baby Toupees

Came across this video and found it pretty funny!

36 weeks!

So if he's on time or early, we have less than a month to go! I'm trying not to think about him coming early in case he ends up being a late one. Also trying not to think of him coming early because then I have less time to prepare than I thought! We ordered our nursery furniture over the weekend, so it should come later this week or next. We of course didn't order from Baby Depot (see a few posts ago). We ordered a beautiful espresso-stain crib and combo dresser/changer from Babies R Us. Still on the hunt for a glider. I'm very much looking forward to having a place to put all the wonderful gifts and helpful hand-me-downs that we have acquired so far.

A friend of ours from the good old days at CPCBC is getting into photography and offered to do a pregnancy photoshoot for us so she can build up her portfolio. We had a great time with that on Sunday and she captured some great pictures. She was able to edit some and post them up on her blog at bekilindseyphotography.blogspot.com already. Looking forward to the finished product! Thanks so much Beki!

After the photoshoot I came home pretty exhausted and took a 3 hour nap, which worked out because Jack had to wrap up a freelance project. When I woke up, things felt a little different. It would seem that the baby has dropped! For those not aware - with your first child, the baby will usually descend lower into the pelvis a few weeks before the big day. So he's sitting even lower now, which makes for frequent trips to the bathroom. But it also makes for decreased heartburn and increased stomach and lung space, so that's been nice!

I had an appointment with my favorite midwife yesterday. She felt around and he's still head down (phew!) and she's guessing he's about 6 pounds already. I'm starting to go weekly now! CRAZY!

We also had another childbirth class last night. We learned about all pain management options. At this point, I'm going into it with the understanding that I'm going to get the epidural when things get really bad. It'll have to be an in the moment decision as to when that is exactly. I'm hoping I'll be able to push it off for a while so I'm not strapped to a bunch of monitors and IVs and all for who knows how long. The instructor told us we'd be watching a video of a woman getting an epidural. I thought it was just a video of the epidural procedure, but it was her whole birth experience and she did not warn the guys this time of the graphic moment(s). Jack was not so thrilled about that. But it was a very informative night and we're very glad we're taking the class. We skipped out before the relaxation exercise so we could join Jack's dad for dinner.

Changes in me - I'm starting to retain more fluids, so it feels like I'm ballooning out a bit. Mostly in my feet and ankles, but starting to feel it in my face a little. I guess I'm lucky I lasted this long without putting anything on in my face! Anyone who knew me in high school knows that I suffered from some edema in my leg in 11th and 12th grade after some soccer injuries. It was pretty cool to me - I called it my playdough leg. All the leftover fluid and dead cells built up in my leg or ankle area and I could squish it around like playdough and it didn't hurt. Sorry if TMI, but I loved grossing people out with it back then too. Well at this point, I have the same thing going on in my feet and ankles. I grossed Jack out with it the other night when I kneaded it all into a bump and then pressed a crater in the middle. Haha.

Conversation Etiquette

It can be shocking what some people will say to a pregnant woman. I haven't gotten incredibly offended at anything, although I really could have from some comments! Based on my own experience, here are some suggestions of what to say and what not to say to a pregnant woman. There is a gray area that some may get away with depending on how well they know you.

What we love to hear:

• You look so cute! (great, amazing, etc. pretty much any nice adjective)


• You're all belly!


• You're glowing!

Gray Area:

• Was it planned or a surprise?


• You know labor lasts about 24 hours with your first kid?


• You know 1 out of 3 women will end up having a c-section?

What you should never say:

• Wow, you got chubby!


• So how is that rapid weight gain going?


• Are you sure there's only one baby in there?


• You got a watermelon under there?


• (If said to someone less than 8 months along) Wow, you look full term!


• I don't think I ever carried that big with any of mine.

Unsolicited Advice:

• Should you be eating that?


• Your life is going to change so much.


• You think it's bad now...


• (when around people with crazy kids) See what you have to look forward to?

Baby Depot - Ghost Town Edition

Special Guest Author: Jack McDade



Ah, Latham Circle Mall. Never heard of it? That's easy to believe. Never been? Even easier to believe. It's reminiscent of cactus kickin', tumbleweed blowin', gold-minin' towns of old after the posse rounded up the cattle and kicked the dirt off their spur-sporting, gold-toed boots and let the wild reclaim the land once more. When we opened the front door, a vulture screeched from the rafters. A lonely bum slept under the pretzel stand. He didn't even look up. Storefront after abandoned storefront stretched as far the eye could see. Off in the distance a small amount of activity could be discerned revolving around an Old Country Buffet and movie theater. But it's arguable that the people were, in fact, ghosts.

In the midst of this ghost town stood our destination: Baby Depot, nestled inconveniently inside Burlington Coat Factory. In case you're wondering, yes, Burlington Coat Factory is still open, and no, it doesn't just sell coats. Apparently.

We're met with Quality Customer Service and Logical Planning Case Number 1: Baby stuff is upstairs, so all the pregnant woman have to travel further than anyone. Case Number 2: the up escalator is broken. We trudge up the narrow and precarious now-stairs, fully expecting to be blind-sided by zombies in this abandoned and disheveled store. The two female clerks at the front stare, apparently unaccustomed to visitors. I think one of them reached for the cash register manual, preparing for the worst.

We finally arrive at the top, our senses on heightened alert. We swear we've seen this exact scene in 28 Days Later.

Baby Depot. Nirvana. Or one would hope. We have a coupon and we're determined to use it. Surpassingly, there is a fair amount of selection. We head towards the first aisle.

"Hello."

A life-form appears from behind the baby registration desk. She's short, old and talks out the side of her mouth like Holly Hunter. Except more annoying.

"Can I help you find something?"

We're just looking. We tell her and make to move past. Mistake number one. Always humor the zombies, they might not attack.

"Well anything you see here we have on the floor but it doesn't mean we have it in stock and if the price tag has a black dot right here it means it's on sale and if the tag is red it means that the accompanying combo piece is half off the normal price but not a discounted price and if you find something you like let me know and I check the price sheet and see if we have any in stock and if we don't have any we can order it for you and it will only take 12 to 14 weeks to get here and if we're out and won't be ordering more we can sell you the floor model but only if it's not on the price sheet ok?"

Reeling from confusion we tried to process the manor in which we now would have to shop.

The only response... "Thanks!"

12 to 14 weeks would imply some poor Malaysian kid would be chewing the trees down to make the necessary lumber before crafting the crib by hand (well, by stub, since his boss chopped his hands off for taking a break to visit his 12 year old mother's grave on the anniversary of her death), by candlelight, and subsequently fashioning a raft made of sticks and lashing them together with his little sister's precious hair and kick-paddling the item across the Pacific Ocean to San Diego where he transfers the crib to a turtle-cart, sending them across the country with a cripple leading the way. Best case scenario.

So we're down to what's in stock. Easy enough right?

We browse the aisles up and down, keeping a wary eye for surprises and trying to ignore the hair on the back of our necks, while we analyze the cribs for color, style and price. Surprisingly we found a set we quite fancied. A quick calculation for our coupon resulted in a potential match. Hearts quickly sunk however once we realized the next step. "Excuse me, miss?"

Pandora's box opened. A mess unlike any seen before exploded before us.

"Oh you like this one? Great ok let me get the price sheet and write this down so I can check if we have any but I'm pretty sure we're out of the combo-dresser but we might have the crib in stock okay I'll be right back don't go anywhere I'm getting the price sheet and then I'll have to go downstairs and check the back to make sure we're actually out because our computer usually is wrong ok price sheet time be back ok don't go anywhere!"

We were pretty sure there was a computer nearby and a barcode on the price tag, but apparently it doesn't work that way. Simplicity is out the window. We're at Baby Depot - Ghost Town Edition.

5 minutes later she arrives with a clipboard the size of Texas and a pen that doesn't work. 4 minutes later she comes back with a pen that does. 3 minutes later she comes back after checking the (apparently) mainframe computer. 2 minutes later we understood what she told us. They were out of stock.

"But let me check downstairs in the back the computer is usually wrong so I'm going to check anyway just in case so I'll put the price sheet back and go check ok?"

We're sure this will end well.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. There must be more than 2 floors to this place. Goblins are probably working some hand-cranked lift-system lowering this woman down a deep, dark shaft of darkness.

Then she was back. Yup, out of stock. We doubted she actually went anywhere.

Perfect opportunity to exercise some Dave Ramsey negotiation techniques. Let's get a deal on floor model. It had a few scratches (hopefully not resulting from zombie-babies and therefore infected with saliva that would spell our inevitable and sudden doom) which meant possible deeper discounts.

"So can you make us a deal on the floor model? Let's get down to brass tax."

I never talk like that. Oh well. Game face is on, no turning back.

"Oh I don't know if we can sell the floor model I'll have to check the price sheet and if it's on there we can't sell it because it's on the price sheet but if it's not on the price sheet we can talk to a manager and see if there's something we can do so I'll go get the price sheet and come back and we'll take a look at the price sheet ok?"

Again with the price sheet. We hoped it wasn't code for "Fresh Meat in Aisle 19." Time passes. We hide from sight just to be safe.

"Okay it's on the price sheet so we can't sell it I'm really sorry." And she's gone again. So much for hardball negotiations. We sincerely doubted the notion of a manager being in this store to make the call anyway. We sincerely doubted the notion of a manager existing at all. In fact, the only real possibility was a rogue vagabond hoarding gasoline in the warehouse and polishing his sawed-off shotgun in preparation for a potential rebel raid, but I digress.

We move on.

It seemed for moment that we were out of luck until we rounded the bend. Another set that struck our fancy. Poking, prodding, drawer-bottom slapping and crib-frame shaking resulted in a potential match. Same price. Here we go again. At this point we weren't sure it was even worth the attempt, but we're here and we're armed with a coupon. Bring it on.

"Oh miss? Miss?" She wasn't nearby this time. We trudge warily back to the baby registration desk. She's training an underling. Our brains exploded at the thought that this woman wasn't at the bottom of the totem-pole. We seriously had to re-evaluate everything we knew about, well, everything. From our 2 minute wait we quickly surmised that we wanted to deal with this new woman even less than the first. Repetition usually has effect on people's cerebral cortexes, but not this woman. Was she a woman? We carefully looked for some red blinking lights in the back of her head.

"Excuse me? We do have one more we like, can you check that, whatchacallit... price sheet?"

When in Rome.

"Okay which one do you want?" She grabbed the price sheet before she left, thus shaving 7 minutes off this next experience. There was hope -- people CAN change.

We stroll back to the new crib/dresser combo, inflated with a sense of hope. If only we knew how misplaced it was.

"Ah you like the Palisades model. It's one of our most popular! I think we're out of stock but let me look here in the price sheet..."

Why are we not surprised?

We watch as she writes the numbers down, consults her price sheet and subsequently heads back to the terminal for some sophisticated number checking. We look at each other and share that look. You know, "the look". That's right, something is happening here isn't it? Something that we're going to tell our children and our children's children. Something epic is right around the corner.

5 minutes go by. We start browsing the shelves. Maybe we can dual-purpose this trip and let it not be in vain. 10 minutes. It was becoming unwise to remain in such an environment for much longer, lest we tempt fate.

We head back towards the desk. Just an aisle or two over we can hear voices. I tense up, preparing for the attack.

"When you stock this area make sure to look at the section you're in and check the price sheet to make sure it goes there..."

There they are. Training is occurring again and it's a sight to behold. The efficiency of this place is bordering on the Six Sigma.

I clear my throat. "Uh, excuse me?"

Our champion of inventory and customer service turns around and takes a few steps in our direction. She opens her mouth to say something we will never forget. A moment so priceless it cannot be described with just words, but I'll try to do it justice.

Wait for it...

"Yes? Can I help you?"

A sunburst so bright we were temporarily blind detonated like the Death Star in the night. Our brains short circuited and reason went out the window. Time stopped. Hummingbirds wings were frozen in time, and somewhere, yes somewhere, a home-owner's insurance commercial had some poor bloke suspended in air with a hot dog in hand and some ethnic minority about to teach us a lesson. Yes, it was the time between times, and she said just what you read. She sincerely and honestly just met us for the first time. Again.

*Cricket*

*Cricket*

"Uh, yes. You can. You were checking on the Palisades crib for us, you know, if there were any in stock?"

Realization hit her face like a freight train. Expletives hit the air like a bucket of cold water on a sleeping drunk. Her hands slapped over her mouth as quick as her eyes had sprung open wide and she fell apart in embarrassment. We looked around to see if anyone else was appreciating this moment as much as us. Nope. This moment was ours to enjoy. Ours to savor for eternity.

"I'm soo sorry! Oh my.. I.. I totally forgot!"

I blinked. No analogy or simile can do an event like this one justice, so I leave magnitude of the situation up to you to determine.

It's at this point in the story where a few of you may start losing focus. You think the best has come and gone and the wrap-up will trail gracefully into a soft ending. Well you're wrong. Wake up and pay attention, because the goomba and her goomblette don't disappoint. Well, by disappointing in new ways do you find a new way for them to NOT disappoint. Victory in failure, one might say.

So back to the scene. Desolate wasteland of a department store manned by a very small handful of automatons (or possibly passive zombies with partial intelligence. The movies could have it wrong you know.) manning the helm. Shock and awe at the caliber of customer service. Awkward and Epic moment in time. And go.

A flurry of activity spewed into existence. Tweedledum initiated what appeared be instructions into the air. We assumed they were meant for Tweedledee, not because she followed them, but because there was no one else there. A few attempts later and Tweedledee looked up, taking her finger out of her nose. It's time for them to show the world why they make the big bucks. It was fumble with the computer time.

"Just right-click there and click on print. No, right-click. The right one. Not the one you're clicking... the OTHER one. No, the other one."

We moseyed over to some nearby gliding chairs and sat down to enjoy the show. What ensued was a complete three-act play of insanity. Act I began with an introduction to their lack of knowledge, communication and computer skills. Act II presented itself in classic Shakespearean fashion: our main characters encountered an obstacle (the computer) that prevented them from achieving their dramatic need (checking inventory). They reached a low point.

Act III was the climax. After much struggle and tribulation, Tweedledum sent her counterpart down to the mysterious and arguably tangible warehouse. We sat and waited. Watched and giggled. We were honestly enjoying ourselves immensely at this point, no longer on edge or looking for attackers. We were fascinated that both people and a store could function like this.

The one problem with Act III was that it didn't appear to have an end. Hours went by and no one came back. We quietly and carefully left. We thought about calling the police and putting in a missing person alert, but ultimately decided against it. There was little to no chance any one in this place was in fact, human.

35 weeks!

Not much has changed in the last week or so. Same symptoms for me, and same active little boy inside! We had our third childbirth prep class last night. We got a thorough tour of the birth center, down to how to operate the hospital beds. We did another relaxation exercise led by the instructor and then afterwards she had the men lead one. She turned up the music so they wouldn't all hear each other. Jack's relaxation exercise took me back to Baby Depot and our adventure furniture shopping. That post will be coming in the near future - it was too funny an experience for me not to have him guest-author the events.

We'd like to shout out a HUGE congratulations to Luke & Ashley who are expecting in February! Woooooo!!! Lots of babies on the way - me & Christie in October, Tina in December, Sara in January, Ashley in February and Frieda in March! Our little ones will have no shortage of friends!

More reflections...

A few more things I remembered that I forgot to include in the previous blog post. At our last childbirth class the instructor asked what we learned in the first class. I learned how a baby fits through the pelvis. Jack learned "why they waddle". Haha :)

Secondly - we burn 30,000 CALORIES in labor!!! That's like 2 weeks worth of an above average daily intake! It'll help burn off some of the extra junk in the trunk though!!

34 weeks!

Wow time has been FLYING. I can't believe it's September already! We get to meet the little guy next month!!!

The past week has brought on or increased some odd symptoms. My fingertips on my right hand, and slightly on my left hand, have been experiencing some numbness. I've read that this is normal and caused by swelling and fluid retention around the nerve in the carpel tunnel. It goes away after the baby is born (thank goodness!). My upper and lower jaws have become slightly out of line so most of the time I can't bite down all the way. (my lower jaw has moved too far forward) This has happened to me before when I've gotten ear infections, but I'm not having any ear symptoms right now. I can line them back up if I sit with my elbow on the table and my chin resting on my hand for a while, but that's not a frequent set-up for me. My stomach is running out of room so I can't eat as much as I think I can anymore. I'm trying to eat smaller portions more frequently throughout the day. Hip pain is pretty much constantly there, and can get pretty excruciating at times. The drive to and from Maine this past weekend was pretty rough, requiring some creative seating in the car and frequent breaks. It was totally worth it though! Sleep patterns are becoming more erratic, which I guess is good practice. Yesterday I woke up at 5:45 and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up around 6:30. I got tired again around 8 and laid back down and fell asleep until 11:30!

The little guy is still very active. He's really enjoyed launching himself off my hips into my ribs. It's starting to get uncomfortable at times, but usually relieved by changing my position. He also had a good number of hiccup fits again this past week! They can really rock the belly, so he takes after Daddy in that regard. Jack gets pretty violent hiccups when he gets them.

We had our second childbirth prep class last night. We learned about the definite signs of labor, the maybe signs of labor, and the not-so-much signs of labor. We also saw a childbirth video. There was only one graphic moment and the instructor warned us of when it was coming. Jack said he was going to close his eyes - he doesn't even want to see that on me! He's going to be a shoulder birth-coach. Fine with me, as long as he's there! We did another relaxation exercise and I warned Jack not to poke me this time so as not to disrupt the others who are actually relaxing. I didn't really get much out of it - too sore laying on the ground. We're developing our own relaxation methods - mainly consisting of quoting our favorite TV shows. We finished off by learning a hand massage that felt WONDERFUL. Jack is a very good learner with these massages! Next week we should be getting an in-depth tour of the birth center provided there's a free room. We got the quick overview tour before when we attended the open house. It's crazy how much prep we go through for a 3-30 hour event! We also learned that's the range that's still considered a "normal" length for labor. Seems like we should get more prep for what happens AFTER. Oh well, I'm told it all comes naturally!


Took a while before a picture was taken that I didn't look like a PLANET in. I guess I've reached that point!