The Ball's in His Court...

It probably isn't the best idea to go silent on the blog so close to your due date.  Or maybe I'm the only one that religiously checks blogs daily when the blogger is nearing her due date to see if she has had the baby?  Creepy a little?  Whatever, I get excited for the blogger.

Anyway... I'm here.  Still pregnant.

In case you're keeping track, I'm 37 weeks and 3 days along.  So even though I like to pretend like I could have this little guy any day now, I could also not have this little man for another 4 weeks.

Oh geez... that thought kind of makes me want to burst into tears.

But, as Coach Taylor says, "One Day at a Time.  One Game at a Time."

Sports references.  Gotta keep my head in the game.  My eye on the ball.

Ok I will stop.

The good news is that we are ready for the little guy.  His clothes are washed.  His cloth diapers are almost all washed.  His newborn diapers are stocked and ready.  The cradle is next to my side of the bed and empty (it had been housing my clothes).  Our bags are packed.

And thanks to a rather active fetus and a strong, painful batch of Braxton Hicks contractions this weekend, I had a great opportunity to practice relaxation and breathing.

So we are waiting.  And since I'm the least patient person on the planet, I'm doing my best to not drive Phil nuts as we wait.  :)  Pray for him.

5 Things Friday

Another Friday is upon us and the weather here is AMAZING.  Or at least that is what I hear.  I'm at my desk, working away tirelessly to try and get my all my work done in case the little man makes his appearance  this weekend.

Without further ado... I give you 5 Things Friday.

1.  This week has kicked my butt.  Next week doesn't look to be any kinder.  Phil's been trying to get me to relax a little bit more.  I guess he read something about how the c-section rate was higher for women who work right up until they give birth.  In an effort to combat how unrelaxing my week has been and will be, I will be spending the weekend relaxing as much as possible.

I should take notes from these guys:

2.  And that will be a little easier because I'm not the only one nesting.  I came home yesterday to find Phil madly cleaning the house.  He had dusted, vacuumed, did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen.  Points for Phil.

3.  I was not so secretly hoping that the full moon would have some kind of lunar effect on me and I'd have the baby.  It didn't work.  And it was supposed to be a strong one, too.  Maybe it's effects will still work this weekend?

Although I did have 2 dreams last night about the baby.  In the first one, the baby died in-utero.  That one was awful.  In the second one, I went to the hospital because I maybe thought I was in labor even though I wasn't really in pain (super wishful thinking on my part).  Turns out I was super in labor and before anyone could check me, I gave two small pushes and the baby was born.  Phil hadn't even made it to the hospital yet.  And in the dream it took me an hour to call him.  When I finally did, he was REALLY mad at me.  Also strange about the dream... the baby was a doll.  Literally.  A hard plastic baby doll.  It was weird.

4.  Yeah I'm pretty sure he won't be born this weekend.  I kind of have a feeling he's going to hang around AS LONG as possible.  You know those stories of women who go 2 weeks past their due dates with no signs of labor and then end up having to be induced but the induction takes FOREVER... I can see myself being one of those women.  I'm not sure what freaks me out more... the idea of a long and painful induction or another month of being pregnant.  I'd better not think about it too much.

5.  But as of tomorrow, we are officially 37 weeks which means FULL TERM!  I'm pretty excited!  That means I can start all those natural induction methods, right?  The March of Dimes would disagree.  I may or may not sit around this weekend with Phil pressing the outside of my ankle.


Ok so that whole thing was pregnancy related and not nearly that funny.  I'll work on it.

A Surge

Nesting...

It's no joke.

There have been a couple of times I have thought I was bit with the nesting bug.  Now I know, that was nothing compared to the nesting that comes with the last few weeks of pregnancy.

Sleep is a cruel joke.  Not that I don't love 2 to 3 hour naps interupted by the need to empty a tablespoon of urine or simply roll over.  But it hasn't exactly been restful.

The thing about the nesting... it doesn't matter.

Who needs sleep?

By about 6, I'm willing it to be a socially acceptable time for me to get out of bed.

I think I'm starting to scare Phil a little.  Between the stress of cancer and surgeries and hormone imbalances and then pregnancy, I have been my fair share of needy.  The poor guy has done a REALLY great job of taking care of me.  I mean, he makes my lunches for me.  I'm truly a lucky lady.

The past couple of mornings, my early wake-up has given me some free time on my hands.  I've been making my own lunch, helping him make his a little, I made his coffee for him this morning (which he didn't expect so he spilled some of it going to make it himself) and have helped out with the dogs all while getting ready completely not rushed and getting out the door on time.

I know that shouldn't be a big accomplishment, but it definitely hasn't been the norm in our house.

My nesting is taking over at work as well.  I have a mountain of a "To-Do" list I need to get done before my "maternity leave" (you don't quite get normal maternity leave when you are a business owner) starts.  The last couple of days, some of my tasks included putting together calculation packets I had done.  It ended up being a couple hundred pages of folding and about 1,000 pages of paper.

{Yes I instragrammed a stack of paper.  It's because I know you care.}

Once I finished that, I cleaned off my desk so well people thought I had quit or been robbed or something.

No place is safe.

Cotton had better watch out or he will be groomed "show ready" just because I'm bored.

5 Things Friday

Blog silence, once again.  I could give a plethora of reasons, but I will resist.  Nobody cares about my laziness.   I thought I would throw together a quick list of random things.  Hopefully it won't sound too snarky, but I'm going to be honest... it's raining outside and I got approximately zero sleep between massive attempts to roll myself over (lack of blogging excuse number 1).  Round Ligament pain... I HATE YOU.



1.  I had my 36 week doctor's appointment on Wednesday (even though I'm not techincally 36 weeks until tomorrow).  I was a little more nervous for the "exam" than I probably should have been and it wasn't as bad as my anxiety-filled mind had made it out to be.  When I shared my fears about the discomfort of the exam with my doctor, she said, "It won't be as uncomfortable as labor."  Touche.  Anyway, without divulging too much information for the world to see regarding my cervix, I will just say this... things are heading in the labor direction.  And it was amazing to me how excited, frustrated, anxious, and disappointed I was with my progress all at the same time.  And it isn't like any of it really matters.  It doesn't make a difference.  He will come when he comes.

But news that my body was getting things moving kind of sent me into overdrive about getting the house ready (lack of blogging excuse number 2).  I did manage to get all of the baby's clothes and blankets washed, organized, and put away.  I also am 40% of the way done prepping the cloth diapers (they have to be washed at least 5 times before they are used).  And I have everything I need washed and set aside to pack my hospital stuff.

2.  Along the same lines, the nursery is SO CLOSE to being done.  I only have 2 more changing pad covers to make and to hang stuff up on the walls.  I think Phil and I are hoping to get that finished this weekend.

3.  As an engineer (in Oregon), I work with A LOT of men.  Currently, about half of the men in my office have become very vocal about how little sleep they are getting.  Get this... one of them only got 5 and a half straight hours of sleep last night before he woke up and then fell back asleep a little while later.  SERIOUSLY?!?!  Between my thyroid and pregnancy, I haven't slept for more than 4 hours at a time in over a year.  This morning, I had had it.  I called them all whiners.  And one of them actually said to me, "You just wait.  Your time is coming."  Excuse me?  What about being 9 months pregnant says rested to you?

Another man I work with came up to me and said, "Wow!  You look REALLY pregnant."  Well since I AM really pregnant, I suppose this is a good thing.  At least he doesn't think I'm faking it.  But needless to say I didn't find this comment helpful.

On the flip side, the grumpy old man I used to share an office with came up to me and complimented me on how well I have done being pregnant and how little I have complained.  Kind of brought a smile to my face.

4.  I probably shouldn't admit how excited I am that the trailer for Catching Fire is out now.  A professional adult really should not admit these things.  I should also not admit that while I am excited, I am not as excited as I was for the Harry Potter movies.  Yeah... I'm a dork.  Did you not read that I'm an engineer?  It's implied.  I promise I'm not into LARPING.

In all seriousness, there is a group of people who larp at a park right by our house.  Every time Phil and I drive by, we kind of creepily slow down to catch a glimpse because you can't NOT LOOK.

5.  Here's a list of things I am looking forward to for after the baby is born (other than the obvious of meeting and snuggling my baby):

-  Alcohol
-  Sushi
-  Caffeine
-  Alcohol
-  Sandwiches
-  Alcohol
-  Frozen Yogurt
-  Alcohol
-  Sleeping on my stomach
-  Alcohol
-  Not feeling like a whale

And now that everyone thinks I'm an alcoholic, I will stop the list there.  I promise I am not.  There's something about being told you can't have something that just really makes you want to have it.  The same thing happened on the low-iodine diet.  The only difference was that then I was allowed alcohol, but denied cheese.  If you think lusting after same wine is weird, try lusting after cheese.  Is it better to feel like an alcoholic or a kid breaking out of fat camp?  I'm not sure.


This post probably shouldn't be posted.  Oh well...

I'm a Big Girl Now

Even though thyroid cancer isn't in the forefront of our lives right now (thank goodness!), that doesn't mean it is gone for good.  Having no real thyroid to call my own makes for constant monitoring.  Plus, I will have blood tests and ultrasounds done constantly to make sure that my cancer hasn't come back.

My last set of tests turned out GREAT!  But the endocrinologist still wanted to see me one more time before the baby was born to go over what he wanted to do for my thryoid hormones and future testing.

Ever since my nodules were discovered, I have gone to very few doctor's appointments by myself.  I honestly think I went to 3 doctor's appointments by myself since July of 2011.  I suddenly had became extremely afraid of going to the doctor, which I think was understandable. 

So when my endocrinologist wanted to see me again, of course I picked a time that would work not only for my schedule, but Phil's schedule as well.  I knew when I scheduled the appointment that my mom, who usually also offers to go with me, wouldn't be able to go.  But no big deal, I thought.  Phil will be with me.

Fast forward to a few hours before my appointment, and Phil started getting really nervous.  He has a presentation tomorrow, plus he's been helping me with the nursery, plus working around the clock on his dissertation, plus going to birth classes, etc.  He mentioned how much work he still had to do tonight, he shouldn't have signed up for the daddy bootcamp class, he shouldn't have taken a nap this weekend (he really needed the nap).

I decided it was time for me to put my big girl pants on and let him off the hook for my appointment (my doctor is an hour's drive away so the appointment would take up the whole afternoon).

He was very hesitant to accept my offer.  He knows how nervous I have been about going to the doctor and I think he was trying to not fall victim to the very possibly mood swings, so there were several rounds of "Are you sure?" and "You won't be mad?" before he finally accepted.

I must admit I was mildly anxious when I realized I would be going to the doctor on my own.  But I am happy to report that I did fine.  No huge panic attacks.  I got nothing but great news (for some reason I had it in my mind that the second I went to the doctor alone, I would receive bad news.  Totally not crazy, I know).  And Phil was able get enough work done to actually come to bed last night.

But just to be clear, Phil is coming with me to the doctor tomorrow.  Let's not push our luck.

{Totally unrelated picture.  Cotton now thinks he is a cat.}

Who will he look like?

I'm so curious about what Baby Janney will look like.  These pictures might help give some foundation.

{Phil's newborn picture / My newborn picture}

I guess we shouldn't be surprised if he is born with hair.

And perhaps the discrepancy in our cheek volumes is the fact that Phil was born weighing like 6 lbs and I was born weighing over 9 lbs.  Ok so Baby Janney will probably have my cheeks.  :)  Hopefully not my birth weight.

And yes, I was born with a perfect "blue steel" look.

A GIANT

We had what will hopefully be our LAST ultrasound for Baby Janney yesterday.  Laying on your back for 30 minutes with a full bladder while some pushes an ultrasound sensor against your protruding belly is definitely not a fun experience.  And since she spent 25 minutes measure things like his head and he abdomen (and freaking me out by spending like 10 minutes looking at his heart), with approximately 2.5 seconds to get a glance at his face, I had plenty of time to focus on my lack of comfort.

At one point, as she was attempting to measure his femur with her firmly pressured sensor, she proclaimed, "Oh there's his leg bone!"  I'm thinking, "Yeah, he jabs me with it constantly and your currently pressing REALLY hard on it.  I know it's his leg bone."  But I didn't say anything.  Humanity points for me.

But as his Momma, I can proudly boast that he has the cutest little abdomen/femur/head I've ever seen.  And she was able to give us a couple of pictures of his cramped little face.

{He's looking a little cramped in there.  Let's go at least 3 more week, buddy!}

He spent the whole time sleeping (which was probably loads better than punching like he at the last ultrasound) with his hand resting across his forehead.  Phil says I sleep the exact same way.  He's already a little Momma's Boy.  :)

Here's the scary part... they are already estimating that he weighs 6 lbs.  Now I know that is just an estimate and they can be off.  But the perinatologist then mentioned that they usually gain about 0.5 lb per week.  I've got about 6 weeks left.

I'll go ahead and bust out my gigantic engineer's calculator for you... that's a 9 pound baby at full term.

9 pounds!!

Yowza!

I pointed out that my mom had 9 pound babies and the doctor then she hoped I had my mom's pelvis.

That weird comment was followed with, "You'd be surprised what will fit out of there."

...

Let's just say the natural induction techniques will begin promptly at 37 weeks.  If you have any suggestions about that, I'm more than happy to hear them.  I'll be here, gathering Mexican and Thai food menus.

Weekend Projects

I know I don't post weekly pregnancy updates like some wonderful bloggers do.  Truthfully, those posts look like a TON of work.  Plus they require weekly pictures to be taken and frankly, that feels like a form of torture for me at this point.  Turns out pregnancy + unstable thyroid = RETAINING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF WATER.

Awesome.

Anyway, if case you were keeping track, I am now 34 weeks pregnant.  And I am currently wafting back and forth between feeling like time has stopped completely, 9 months is actually FOREVER, that I will never actually have the baby and HOLY COW HE COULD BE BORN IN WEEKS, WE HAVE SO MUCH LEFT TO DO, I HAVEN'T WASHING ANY OF HIS CLOTHES YET, WHY AREN'T THERE MORE HOURS IN THE DAY!

Thankfully, that's where nesting kicks in.  And I tackled a few items off my to-do list.

Since Phil and I were both diligently working Saturday, Cotton was quite confused as to why we were both home and yet neither one of us was available for cuddling with him.  He checked in with me several times during the day:

What this picture doesn't show is his desperate attempts to crawl on my ever-shrinking lap.  Poor, neglected dog.  What was Taylor doing all day?  Lounging on the couch like a good dog.  She's not as needy as the puppy.

He also proved later that he wanted to get work done too:

I should probably pull out my big girl camera to take pictures of my finished products, but that would require actually plugging the camera into my computer and downloading pictures (which I STILL haven't done from my baby shower a month ago!), so Instagram pictures will have to suffice.

I managed to:

-  Finish the chenille blanket by sewing on the trim (not pictured).  I always forget how long that process takes and how much I absolutely detest it.

-  Make two covers for the changing table pad.  I also discovered that this fit the cradle pad, which means I don't have to make a special pattern AND the sheets are now dual purpose.  YAY!  I think I still need to make two more covers, but those should only take about 30 minutes a piece maximum now that I know what I'm doing.

-  Make the carseat cover.  I know this is a totally NOT NECESSARY baby item (which is why I certainly didn't want to purchase one).  But since I cost me about $5 in fabric (plus some fabric I already had), I figured it was a worthwhile project.  Plus I kind of love how it looks.

We also attempted to take some baby clothes back to exchange them for larger sizes Saturday morning.  Of course, by the time we got to the store we had decided that we really didn't want to exchange anything and just ended up buying him more clothes.  I'd call that a win for the baby clothes industry.

I'm slowly but surely get things checked off the to-do list.  I think I only have a few sewing projects left and then some random things I need to get done for the nursery.

Slowly but surely.  Then maybe I'll use my big girl camera for the big reveal.  :)

Early to bed for me

Yesterday afternoon, I felt energized.  I was going to run home and get so many things done, I would marvel at my level of productivity.  I printed off the pattern and instructions for the Boppy slipcover and secretly planned about how I was going to finish BOTH slipcovers AND start on the carseat cover that night.  It would be great.

But then I got home...

And after making THIS for dinner (pickles on the side) and cleaning up the dishes, I was pooped.  Plus I had left my pattern and instructions on my desk.

I really wanted to go to bed at like 8.

I managed to stay up with Phil and the dogs until about 9, at which point after being kicked in the knee/shins of my restless legs by the dogs (plus the daily elbowing of the knee Phil accidentally gives me), I had had it.  I may or may not have immediately stood up and said, "I'm done with all over you!  I'm going to bed."

Phil was a little startled by my sudden outburst and gave a very hesitant, "Ok..." in response.  Then he carefully asked, "Is everything ok?"

"I'm really tired!" I snapped in return.  "I wanted to go to bed at 8."

"Why didn't you?" he asked.

"Cause I didn't want to be anti-social," was my reply.

He then informed me that it would be alright with him in the future if I went to bed when I was tired, rather than have a sudden outburst at him and the dogs.

Good to know.

Anyway... I couldn't stand the thought of not sticking to my "1 a day" goal, so I grabbed my crochet hook and yarn and marched myself to bed, where I started the blanket I wanted to crochet.

An hour and a half later, I had made some serious progress (in my opinion).

So far, the blanket is really cute, thick and soft.  It won't end up being very large, probably about 30" by 40".  I'm thinking when I finish this one, I might made another one, a little smaller.  It would be a perfect carseat blanket.

I'm not a really quick crocheter (not sure that is even a word).  But this pattern is so simple, it was easy to zone out a little and just go with it.  Not to mention, I find it extremely relaxing.  So much so that I brought it to work with me.  I'm hoping to get some more done on my lunch break.

And tonight, I will sit in the recliner, where neither Phil nor the dogs can bump my legs and crochet my little heart out since I don't have to make dinner (cause I don't count putting a frozen pizza in the oven "making" dinner).  I think Phil will also encourage an early bedtime.

This Stuff Only Happens to Me, I Think

Yesterday morning, I had an appointment with my OB.  It was just your ordinary, run of the mill, check-up on the baby.  Nothing special.  Phil and I had a couple of questions, but nothing major.  It ended up being a fairly eventful appointment, with some good information and I left feeling super excited like the baby would be coming ANY DAY now (which of course I hope isn't the case).

SIDE NOTE:  She didn't really say he'd be coming any day now.  She just got me excited talking about HOW CLOSE we were to being done.

One of the highlights of the appointment came at the beginning.

We walked into the exam room, where I immediately put down my purse and was handed the dixie cup I was to use for the obligatory urine sample.  The bathroom was  located on the corner at the intersection of two hallways, right across the hallway from my exam room.  Only 4 steps away basically.

Since my appointment was first thing in the morning and I had my thyroid bloodwork done earlier in the morning, I hadn't had anything to eat.  I compensated by drinking a bunch of water and I was pretty proud of myself that despite not being to see what I was doing, I was able to (sorry in advance if this is an overshare, but it is kind of pertinent to the story) produce a decent sample without peeing all over myself.

A personal triumph.

NOTE:  I don't embarrass easily.  If this was too much information for you, I apologize.  My mom is probably thoroughly embarrassed for me at this point but that doesn't matter because she barely reads my blog.  What does that say when your own mother doesn't even read it?  Anyway...

I washed my hands, grabbed my full cup and opened the door.

I take a step out of the door way and a very tall man comes tearing around the corner, at full speed, of course completely cutting the corner (alliteration much?).

I could see it happening in slow motion.  Total panic crept up for a few reasons:  1)  There was no way I was going to be able to provide another sample anytime soon, 2) I really didn't want pee all over myself and 3) of course this kind of thing would happen when I have a FULL cup.

I stopped and thankfully, the man stopped.

"WHOA!  Sorry," he says.

The only response I could think of was, "That could have been REALLY bad."

Everyone laughed.

What did I want to say?  "Hey dumby... maybe you DON'T walk at full speed around the corner by the bathroom that gets used for this VERY purpose like 50 times a day?"

The CNA after I got back into my exam room (who witnessed the near miss along with my husband) said, "We need those corner mirrors there" followed by "That guy is always walking really fast."

Well maybe his almost urine bath has taught him a lesson.

I sure learned one:  Next time, I'm checking around the corner and talking loudly before I step out of the bathroom.

Baby To-Do

I guess I hadn't realized it, but getting the rocking chair finished really lifted my spirits and took a HUGE load off my back.  I feel like we are SO CLOSE to being done with the nursery now that that project is finished.  It's probably because all of the things I have left to do are so small and less time consuming than that one.

Here's a list of things I have left to do:

-  Hang Curtains

-  Put trim on chenille blanket

-  Make 2 or 3 covers for the changing pad.  I'm going to use THIS tutorial I think.  I may do a little extra tailoring to make the cover fit more snugly.

-  Make 2 fitting sheets for the cradle.  I'm going to use the same concept as the changing pad covers.

-  Make 2 Bobby covers using THIS tutorial.

-  Make a car seat cover.

-  Maybe make another chenille blanket.  This one will be VERY simple and smaller than the last one I made.

-  And I want to crochet a blanket for the little man.  I'm thinking THIS pattern looks simple enough.  I almost started it last night but decided sleep would likely be a better option.

-  Crochet some hats.

-  Put together artwork for the wall.

-  Get Phil to finish and hang bookshelves (he started them this weekend).

-  Exchange some of the clothes Phil and I bought.  After my baby shower, we discovered we had an ABUNDANCE of 0-3 month clothing.  I thought this might happen.  So when Phil and I bought a bunch of baby clothes on sale about a month ago, I saved the receipt and left all the tags on in case we would need to exchange them for larger sizes.  I think I might do that this weekend.

-  Wash all the crib bedding, diapers, wipes, clothes and blankets.  Clothe diaper inserts have to be washing several times (they recommend something like at least 3, but morel likely 10 washes) before they are, shall we say, put to use.

-  Organize all clothes and blankets.

-  Make diaper wipe solution.  This will take 10 seconds tops.  I'm thinking I will omit the tea tree oil.

-  Pack our hospital bags.


It looks like a lot of stuff still to do.  But I'm pretty sure most of these projects will only take a few hours.  And with my new goal of doing one thing a day, I think it is do-able.  Nesting has kicked in full-force which helps.  Unfortunately, I have some night meetings in the next couple of  weeks which will interfere with my
productivity.

Now I just need to decide which project to do tonight...