So cute...

... one reason I shouldn't have been TOO worried about my (now resolved) maternity policy, the reaction to a 3 month old baby being brought into my office today.  One of my coworkers had to bring his son in for our company meeting, and the guys were practically lined up to hold him throughout the 4 hour meeting.  It was really cute.  They were so excited about the baby, and picking him up and carrying him around to try and help out dad.  I like it when guys like kids...  I however stared at him from a distance and only agreed to hold him at the very end after he'd made the rounds and didn't appear to be fragile.

Another tidbit that made me smile -- when I said I was 6 weeks away, they all looked at me wide-eyed and said they never would have guessed, that I look great, and "shouldn't you be relaxing with your feet up somewhere?"  So I guess I'm doing alright with this pregnancy thing....

Oh and the new dad offered to give John pointers about how the baby thing works, and to assure him that after you watch a baby being born, you realize there isn't much you can do to break them.

And finally, again from new dad (2nd time dad, but new dad all the same)... when trying to convince one of the other coworkers that he and his wife need to start having kids, bearded coworker said that he and his wife were on the same page and there are still a lot of trips they want to take.  In response, new dad says "well, there's nothing like a trip down the birth canal".  I nearly choked on my lunch...

My coworkers crack me up.

Unprepared

I feel as though I'm completely unprepared for this birth experience that's supposed to happen give or take 6 weeks from now.  I'm not usually a "prepared" type of person, so it's not exceedingly abnormal for me to feel like I'm "winging it".  But I'm starting to doubt that this is the time to just see what happens.  Ha.  

Three instances in the last couple of days have begun to make me realize that maybe, just maybe, I should actually study up on this shiznit.  My "women have been doing this for thousands of years" philosophy seems to be losing steam.  

First instance, my pilates instructor (also a doula) talking about how important it is to just understand the birthing process, etc so that you are more calm about it and prepared for what's happening -- because as she says, fear leads to stress, which leads to anxiety, which leads to pain.  I totally botched that, but it's along those lines.  Essentially, fear = pain.  If I'm more relaxed and calm, I could have less pain.  I'm all for that.  This instance ALSO made me wonder if I should think about a doula... she made it sound awesome.  But that's another expense that I would rather not have.

Second instance, all my little email reminders that I'm getting are talking about my bag for the hospital and my "birth plan".  Ohhhh.... birth plan.  I've heard of these before -- they are like a map for what you hope to happen through your birth and provides instructions for people around you when you're going psycho or something and your brain isn't working while trying to squeeze a baby out.  The problem is, I have NO idea what I want my birth plan to be.  Uhhh.. I kind of assumed that doctor's were supposed to tell me what I was supposed to do, but I can see the benefits of it - especially once I've done a quick google search and seen all the options of what birthing can mean.  It makes sense to have ideas of what you want and some guidelines to follow (like not letting strangers come randomly into the room while you're exposing all the parts that I was under the impression shouldn't be shown to strangers)... but goodness, I have NO idea.  I would just like to write "go to hospital, have baby with no pain, walk out happy with cute baby that doesn't cry".  Is that an option for a birth plan???  I think it's probably not, so I'll have to work on that.

Third instance, talking with a woman last night at a brewery for Marla's birthday.  She was talking about her baby, and asked me if he was head down.  She apparently had to go in for aversion with her doctor to try and get her baby to be head down, and from what she said it was incredibly painful.  I had to just kind of stare at her blankly and say "umm.. I don't know... when I saw him 12 weeks ago he was breech".  I'm guessing at some point the doctor will talk with me about it and feel around my belly to see what this guy is doing, but I haven't asked (never occurred to me), and she hasn't said.... and I realize I still have some time for Chalupa Batman to really get into his full downward and locked position, but maybe I should start wondering or at least asking?  

So, I think in the next few weeks, I should probably get some answers... get some ideas... get some reading in about how all of this goes down.  I don't want fear to equal pain... and while I don't feel fear right now, I also feel a strange sense of "I have forever until he gets here so I don't need to worry about it yet", that is slowly ticking off the clock.  

I'm now taking suggestions on birth, birth plans, anything really.  Similar to my questions on registering -- don't be surprised if my birth plan is a near carbon copy --- I like to do that.  It's not my fault that my friends are such wonderful planners and have such great ideas that I can piggyback on!

Moving right along.... definitely moving

So, a quick update on the week-by-week.  It's been a little bit of time, I'm actually in Week 34 now but haven't taken the picture.  But I'm back on track.  How am I feeling, you might ask?  I'm feeling great!  Today I'm feeling full and my belly is feeling a bit ridiculous - but two days ago I think I actually forgot I was pregnant for most of the day because I felt so good.  So, that was a little weird.  Hahaha - but probably super lucky? 

Went to the doctor on Thursday - his heartbeat is strong at 156, size is spot on (32 cm for 32 weeks), and generally speaking all looks well.  My right hand is still swollen, some days are better than others.  The last couple of days have been baaaad.  I don't know what the deal is with that.  But, I'm sure it's due to the soreness in my knuckles and then this little guy making my body crazy.  My doctor still isn't worried about it.  I still have ankles, and my feet haven't gotten swollen or gotten bigger, so I guess I'll take what I can get.  Just as long as this hand thing disappears in about 7 weeks - otherwise I'm going to be a little bit annoyed.

He's moving a lot more now.  There are still some days where he doesn't move as much, but then there are days when he goes nuts.  I haven't been able to identify body parts (thank goodness --- yikes!), but I can tell that he moves more right after drinking some cold water.  So, that's kind of fun. 

I've heard that people start to get anxious once the end is so much in sight.  I'm still super happy to wait to have the scariness of taking care of a baby.  Haha, so he can take his time.  Remind me of this in like 4 weeks when I'm tired and giant and don't want to do this anymore.  :)  I can also stand to wait because I'm STILL waiting on my maternity policy.  I have tried to be so patient and understanding, but that ran out a few weeks ago.  Honestly, I'm like 4 weeks from being full-term, less than 7 weeks until he's due... and I still don't know how much time I can take off or if I'm getting paid for any of it.  It's extremely frustrating.  There is promise after promise that it should be released on "X Day" and when that day passes there is another one set in place.  I'm about to pull the "crazy pregnant lady" card and start being a pain in the ass.

Oh, talking about "crazy pregnant lady" ---- I was last week.  When I'm out in Lombard, I would say that about 90% of the office complex people smoke.  And they smoke right in front of the freaking door.  State law requires 15' from the door -- but that doesn't seem to make a difference.  The other morning, I couldn't take it - there was this old mafia looking guy standing outside the door as I walked in and he didn't even make a MOVE to get away from the door... I may or may not have looked at him and his friend and say "really?  could you at least try to move 15' away from the door like you're supposed to?"... his friend looks at me and says "I'm not smoking".  Really???  Clearly you're not smoking therefor I'm NOT TALKING TO YOU... instead of yelling at him and saying "no shit", I responded with "I realize that, but your friend is, and you need to be at least 15' away from the door, it's the law".  The guy apologized and moved away... I was worried that my car would be keyed or a horses' head would be inside my car the next time I stepped out.  Luckily, nothing of the sort -- and now when he sees me coming he makes a point to be clear out of my path.  I was going to say "I'm sorry, I'm just sensitive because I'm pregnant", but decided that I didn't even owe an explanation because it's rude that they smoke in front of the door and illegal and I just don't want them to do it.  Haha... So yeah, I'm ridiculous. 

Alright, this turned into something a lot more than planned -- without further ado, here are my week 31, 32, and 33 week-by-week belly pictures.

Week 31:  The Hyperactive Head of Lettuce (was moving like CRAZY)
Week 32:  The Jiving Jicama (again, moving like crazy -- we debated using a "j" sound or the "h" sound and decided on keeping it letter relevant, versus sound... you're welcome for the background info)
Week 33:  The Happening Honeydew

Have a great week everyone!!!  (Next up, the amazing work John has been doing to our spare bathroom!!!!!)

Slow progress is still progress....

I hate the feeling of always being out of time, but I think it's how I live my life.  I need to schedule in time, and then actually do something with it.  Whenever I have a free moment when I should be cleaning, organizing, clearing crap out of our place ... getting the nursery cleaned out from all the junk that keeps managing to migrate there...  this is when I seriously wish I could just hire someone to go through everything and put it together for me. Or I guess I could just suck it up and be a responsible person, but where's the fun in that??

But the good news is, that we are slowly making headway on the nursery in terms of getting furniture and some basic baby essentials.  We bought a dresser.  I had been hoping to find something awesome on craigslist, but I just couldn't find something that would work.  I was looking into midcentury dressers, but of course many of the ones that I found were still expensive, and most of them weren't tall enough to fit what we needed.  Some of them were really long as well, which I was a bit nervous about since our room has such limited space.  But we were able to get a dresser on sale, and while a little bit more "rustic" than I originally had thought I wanted -- I really like the way it looks.  It has a lower open shelf that I'm looking forward to adding some baskets so that McNugget can have access to some of his toys and anything else that he can get into on his own.  Otherwise, nearly everything in that space is elevated far out of his reach.

We also found a crib skirt and a changing pad cover.  I'm pretty excited about it.  They are all going to be a bit eclectic together, but I think it should be a lot of fun.  The crib skirt is white with stripes, and the pad cover is the "transit authority" from Land of Nod.  It looks like a city transit line.  I have a picture below.... and it's awesome.  We have registered for a second cover so that we can have a spare, but I love this one!

We also bought a stroller!  I had been looking at two specific ones, the City Select by Baby Jogger and the Vista by UppaBaby.  John and I did our due diligence of asking around (thanks to JuliAnna and Julia for their help with sending recommendations and thoughts our way), looking online and reviews and comparisons, going to the store and touching and playing with both of them to see how easy they were to use and to compare the two different strollers.  They were essentially the same thing -- which made it come down to either cost or look.  Funny story, John actually got on board with looking at them and picked his favorite --- the graphite frame with the orange seat/bassinet.  I knew that it was more money than we would like to spend - enter craigslist for strollers!  I have been trolling that site seeing if there were any good deals on random stuff that would be good for us.  I started looking at strollers off and on for the last 6 months or so.  The unfortunate thing of having John have an opinion is that he has a bit of a harder time "settling" for something else, and I have a hard time denying him things... which might be why we have LED light bulbs that change color, Wii U (plus Wii, pluse Playstation 3).... and generally why we have MOST things in our home.  But craigslist came to the rescue, they were having a floor sample sale at a baby store on Michigan Ave.  We strolled (ha, get it?) in there to check it out because I thought I had seen a picture of orange and black Vista -- and there it was!!  It turns out that we were there on the right weekend day, it was even MORE on sale.  So, we were able to pay and carry it right out of that store to our car.  It was a bit weird to walk it out with the bassinet holding the seat, but it worked out.  It was also probably pretty comical to have us get in the elevator and try and maneuver that thing around and ultimately fold it up to put it in the car.  We definitely had a few people give up on waiting for our parking spot because we were taking too long.  That's what practice is for!

Generally though, we are getting there.  As you can see from the panoramic photos, we still have a few baskets of things that we have to find a place for (candle holders, paperwork, DVDs, golf clubs), but hopefully we can do that over the next few weeks.  Our Flor tiles get here tomorrow!!!  Aside from one color that's on back order, so we'll be able to put our rug together soon.  That will encourage me to get all the crap off the floor as well.  I'm just so excited to have almost all the pieces!  Our hold out right now is the glider.  I want something that looks like our furniture - as in, it will fit in once it's not relegated to only a nursery or kids room.  That creates issues on price, because they are insanely expensive.  And apparently if you're taller than 5'4" and weight more than 130 lbs, it is hard to find a chair that doesn't make you feel like the Papa Bear sitting in the Baby Bear chair.  We seriously felt like giants in the one that I really liked the looks of (Monte Luca) .. so it's been a bit disappointing.  It also is frustrating because we can't find the other one we are looking at, to sit in it and test it out.  So we are in a bit of a waiting moment to see what we are going to do.

But enough of that -- on to the pictures.  Enjoy!!!

I'm Violet

As in Violet from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  You know, the one who turned into a giant blueberry.  My left hand is normal me, while my right hand is apparently pregnant Violet me.  Did anyone else have lopsided swelling?  Because I'm feeling like my body is making me have some sort of split personality with my left hand being of normal size, while my right hand is trying to show me what I would look like if I weighed 300 lbs or was the elephant woman.  It's a bit unsightly and definitely uncomfortable.  My doctor assures me that it's nothing to worry about.  I'll be discussing it with her again at my appointment in 2 weeks just to make sure.  I've had soreness in that hand for a couple of months, so she feels it's just that I probably had some slight inflammation from the soreness and now the water retention might be kicking in and going for my weakness.

I hope it goes back to normal.. I'm happy that my feet, ankles, and left hand seem to have evaded this so far - but I would love for this to pass and pass quickly.

Here's to a less swollen 65 more days!  

(Hope everyone had a very safe and happy New Year's Eve!!!)