IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!

Now you get to read the rest of this blog entry with the 80's song in your head. It's now my theme song, since it takes a little pumping up just to walk down the hall to the bathroom at work. Little Guy is due 4 weeks from tomorrow! My energy is waning and I've had some REALLY uncomfortable days, but overall I think I'm pretty lucky.

We had our last parenting class yesterday - Infant Safety & CPR. It was upsetting just to think about using anything we learned in the class, but it also helps me to feel more ready. We know what to do in the worst possible situation, so I feel less pressure to know everything else. I spent a good part of last week studying up on baby poop - who knew there could be so many variations??

I know I've said it before, but Little Guy is REALLY getting big now. He's been poking his feet out my side all day, and I'm not so sure all of his adorable little socks are going to fit those boats!
His room is almost ready. We finally found a lamp and curtains after an exhausting day of shopping on Saturday. I was dead set on finding something before we went home, and Adam very patiently drove me to every store I could think of. We even thought about custom ordering curtains at JC Penney, but the saleswoman was really rude to us. We could tell it was because she sized us up as having no money; I was wearing a wrinkled men's tshirt and my hair was in a messy ponytail.

Adam has been really great about helping around the house, and it's been really cool going through this process together. During a break at one of our parenting classes, all of the moms rushed to the bathroom, and as we came out the dads were lined up in the hallway waiting. It was cute to see Adam standing there as one of the dads. They all had similar dazed looks on their faces. Adam is one of the most easy-going people I know, but even he gets a little nervous about the birth and parenting.

Getting Closer!

We'll be 35 weeks along next Tuesday - it's hard to believe we're this close! We went to a breastfeeding class today, which made me feel more confident that I'll be able to do it when the time comes. We had several hours to kill downtown before we headed back to the hospital for a birth center tour, so we went down to Pike Place Market and spent a relaxing hour at the bookstore. Little Guy had a photo op with Barack Obama...

I had a rough week at work. I had multiple long meetings that required a lot of coordination, and I struggled to keep up. In the past I liked the chaos, but now it's just exhausting. I felt really frustrated with myself for forgetting things and not having everything perfect. And I've had to ask for help, which is tough sometimes. Most of my coworkers have been great about helping, but I give myself a hard time, even though I know that's silly!

Finally on Friday I had to laugh at myself for being so uptight. I was sitting in yet another meeting, feeling miserable because I was so uncomfortable and couldn't focus. I was roasting (even though the woman next to me was shivering), and my hands and feet swelled up like sausages. My back was hurting and my sciatic nerve was compressed (aka butt cramp). Then my laptop crashed and I thought my notes were lost forever. I had two hours left in the day when I got back to my desk, and I thought I'd never make it. But then I thought about how I would do absolutely anything for Little Guy...step in front of a train, whatever (although right now that would be counterproductive), and I realized that my discomfort and frustration are such small things. Thinking about things in that way gave me a fresh burst of energy (maybe not a "burst," but I was able to stay conscious at least). It helps just to accept that there are going to be challenges and not get too worked up about them.


Little Guy's room is coming along great. Adam painted it last weekend and we set up his furniture. We need to do the finishing touches, but we should have pictures soon. It's already cuter than I imagined, and more spacious. Now I just need to find curtains and a lamp - I thought it would be easy to find simple yellow curtains and a lamp with a yellow shade, but so far no luck!

Oh my!

We had our childbirth class yesterday. It was a great class - the instructor was hilarious and the other couples were really nice. Since it was only an 8-hour class, we didn't get to talk about things in much detail, but it gave us an idea of what we want to learn more about and what decisions we need to make.

I was a bit freaked out by the birth videos she showed. It wasn't so much the actual births as all of the moaning and groaning before-hand. We learned some great coping techniques, but it made me realize that it's going to be more work than I thought. I had this idea that you go to the hospital, sit in the bed for however many hours, and then the hard work happens when you push. I didn't realize how exhausting and painful the actual contractions would be. I had trouble falling asleep last night just thinking about it, but I feel better today. Adam was really into the class and learning all of the coaching techniques, and I'm going to read through the book they gave us and practice the coping techniques.

It was also good to learn more about pain control. I'm going to do my best to stick it out through the contractions until we're pretty far along, then go for the epidural when/if it gets unbearable. We learned that it will minimize our risk of a c-section or of slowing the labor if we wait until a certain point. I didn't have strong feelings about a regular birth versus c-section until the class, when they talked about the recovery period for a c-section. I'm ready to take it easy for a couple of weeks once he's here, but I'll lose my mind if I'm that limited for 6 weeks.

We saw the doctor today, and Little Guy is doing great. My belly measurement is right on and my blood pressure is good. AND I only gained 2 pounds since my last visit. If I keep the pound a week rate, I'll gain a total of 40. A little on the high side, but not too bad. The doctor was able to feel Little Guy's position, and he's head down, right where he should be! He's turned facing my right side, which explains why I feel all of his kicks on that side. He has had hiccups at least twice a day for the past week, and his hearing seems to be more sensitive. He jumped earlier today when someone honked one of those air horns outside, and he did another little jump when the microwave dinged while I was making dinner.

A Tapeworm Called Little Guy

Here we are at 32 weeks! Two different strangers made comments this week about how the baby "must be due any day." Yep, any day 8 weeks from now! I'm not going to have anything to wear towards the end because I've about grown out of everything already.

I can't stop eating today! My two pregnant friends at work talk about how hard it is to eat because their stomachs are too compressed. I don't have that problem. (They're both having girls, so their bellies aren't about to drop to the floor like mine.) I woke up with a growling stomach at 4 am, so I had my nightly glass of Nesquik. I went back to bed but couldn't sleep because the growls started up again. So I had a bowl of cereal, and managed to sleep another four hours before the growls woke me up again. I've heard these hungry days are a sign that the baby is having a growth spurt. He's already so big that he can hook a foot through my ribs and squeeze my bladder at the same time!

Tomorrow is our childbirth class. I'm excited to see the hospital and know a little more about what to expect. But I hope we don't learn so much that we start getting nervous. I just want to know anything that will help the birth go smoothly.

The weather has finally turned spring-like, after we had SNOW earlier this week. I was sitting through a grueling 5-hour meeting at work, and I looked out the window to see a flurry of snowflakes! I got an eye twitch that still hasn't completely gone away, even after my boss's April Fool's joke. During the meeting, the client asked my boss if any design changes had been made on a certain structure. My boss replied, "No, except we decided to use [such-and-such] rebar." The room was dead silent except for the sound of me clicking away on my laptop, oblivious to the tension in the room. (I, of course, had no idea how horrific an idea it would be to use [such-and-such] rebar.) Then my boss smiled and said, "April Fools!" and all of the engineers cracked up with relief. Now imagine my boss with his goofy glasses and ever-present bed-head. Goofy as they are, the engineers I work with are really smart and nice to work with. It's nice to work in an environment where most people are focused on the work and you don't have to tiptoe around a minefield of egos.