I hate my house. If you’re wondering why, well let me tell you.

Today I bought a new couch. We’ve wanted a new couch for a long time, but kept saying we can’t afford a new couch and it wasn’t a necessity. Well yesterday when we were cleaning our house there was a clear consensus that it is now a necessity – our old couch has been peed on way too many times and the fur is ingrained in the fabric itself. It’s disgusting, and it smells a little bit. (We haven’t actually sat on our couch in months.) With a newborn on the way, this is unacceptable.

So I said, “What is my price limit?” and Den said, “Hmmm, $300?” I said, “I’ll go check Craig’s List.”

And I did. Craig’s List had some sorta-options but not really. Most of them were ugly. Many of them were too expensive. Some of them were too huge for our small living room. (One was actually a REALLY nice looking couch – in brand-new condition. It said, “We just bought this. I brought it home and realized it’s not really what I wanted.” So they were selling it… for far more than we could afford.)

I said, “I’ll check Bob’s tomorrow.” Bob’s is a local furniture place that has nice stuff at good prices. Even his good prices are too expensive for us, but he has a Bargain Basement where all the scratched and dented stuff goes. So I figured I’d take a look at it, see what I could find.

But first I logged on to his site online to take a look at the living room sets. Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to pick out whatever I wanted. Sigh. Den and I looked at a couple of sets, saw some we liked, some we hated. Then I turned it off because we still can’t afford $500 for a couch. Oh well.

Today I went to Bob’s and went straight downstairs to the bargain basement. WOW was there a lot of furniture!! Dinged up, sure… but in our house that happens within a week anyways. I was so excited! I saw a sage couch for $300 and thought, “Hmmm, this could work.” It was nice enough looking. I asked why it was in the bargain basement and the saleslady checked it over and found some threads loose holding the back cushions down. I laughed. $200 cheaper because of some loose threads. Hot damn. But then she kind of frowned and said that the throw pillows that were on the couch didn’t actually belong with that couch. They were there, so I could have them if I wanted, but they weren’t supposed to be with that particular couch. I told her I really didn’t need throw cushions anyways. She sighed in relief and said she’d put them back then. She walked them down an aisle to another couch…. and I blinked. It was one of the couches that Den and I had picked out online last night… the ones we sighed and said we couldn’t afford. The wood along the bottom front was a little dinged up. I asked how much the couch was. She checked. $300. I called Den. I ended up buying that couch. (Also ended up waiting in line for like an hour waiting for the loading dock… with BIL, who I called as a favor, as he has a big truck to transport couches. It was a frustrating afternoon, waiting, but we got it home!)

I’m sure you’re reading all of this and thinking, “But Natalie, this doesn’t explain why you hate your house. A new couch should make you like your house more!” And you would be right. Except…

WE CAN’T GET THE COUCH INTO OUR EFFING HOUSE. It doesn’t fit through our front doorway. Or the breezeway door. Or the garage door. In fact, we cannot get it in the house. We could, possibly, get it in the basement – but it won’t fit up the stairs either.

So we have a brand-new couch in our garage, and the pee-couch in our living room. And Den and I are trying to figure out which wall to knock down to get it inside. (The couch will fit through the front door – barely – but the front door opens into a very small foyer, and there is no way to turn the couch to get it into the living room. We’d have to knock down a wall. Or something.)

I hate my house. *cry*

I’m seeing now why people say that you can’t beat the Bradley classes in terms of education and information, and why they don’t regret spending $250 on it. It’s far more than a “here’s what happens in birth” class. It’s like getting an anatomy class, nutrition class, and weekly meditation sessions all in one. I am actually surprized that so far I’ve learned something new each class. Me being a research addict and all, there have been plenty of times where I’ve paid for a class and gotten nothing out of it because I’ve already read it all (this happened multiple times in college, it was very irritating). So yes, I admit, there was a part of me that was a little nervous that I was going to walk out of the Bradley classes thinking, I paid how much for that? I could have just read the book. I can now definitively say that is no longer a concern.

The first thing the instructor did when class started was hand us all a sticky nametag to put on. Den gave me a look that very clearly said, If you were anyone else, and this was for anything else, I would so murder you right now for putting me through this. I HAVE TO WEAR A FREAKING NAMETAG. Apparently wearing a nametag is a fate worse than death. He looked as if the nametag was going to bite him. It was too funny for me to feel stupid for wearing a nametag.

Then we reviewed some things from last week… the exercises we were supposed to have been doing every day. (Ummm, I forgot.) And you know… I really thought I would have remembered more from last week, but I was having a hell of a time remembering the names to the positions and the benefits of each. There are only 6 of them, so it shouldn’t have been THAT difficult, good grief. So I was both feeling a little stupid for not remembering, and very thankful that we were going over them again! Obviously the weekly repetition is a good thing during pregnancy. There’s not enough space in our brains, and the last thing I want is to go into labor and forget everything. (Which I have heard multiple other people who took “regular” birth classes say. And I can believe it, too!)

We talked some more about nutrition, unfortunately I hadn’t been tracking my diet last week. I am this week, and it has been a major goal of mine every day to hit 80g of protein, as well as trying to get in the other things. The diet that the Bradley Method promotes is the Brewers Diet.

Now this is something I found back when I first got pregnant (while researching the Bradley Method to decide if that’s what I wanted to do). And before I got sick with my morning sickness I was actually following it pretty well. Then of course it all went to hell, and I was happy just to keep down a bowl of cereal, lol. So this class has reminded me to go back to eating nutritious. Normally I can’t stand tracking my diet… I tried doing that to diet (a couple years ago), and it drove me bat-shit crazy.

But for some reason this is different. Instead of setting limits (you can only have X calories per day!) and restrictions, it focusses on what you SHOULD be eating, and the MINIMUM you should have of something. Which in my head makes a huge difference. And the funny thing is, it’s still having the same effect in cutting out junk foods… because my stomach is only so big, I can only eat so much, so in order to eat 80g of protein I can’t be filling up on junkfood that has none… every meal I eat has to count. When I get hungry I think to myself, Okay, what can I eat that has some protein? Or is there something else I can eat that I can check off my list today, like a fruit? I feel so proud of myself for doing better for my baby. I’m eating whole grains and fruits and good sources of protein.

One interesting thing the instructor said was that someone (I forget who) did a study of pregnant women and their protein intake… and his findings were that the women who ate at least 75g of protein a day had a 0% rate of toxemia (pre-eclampsia); the women who ate less protein had a 40% rate (or something like that). Now I haven’t found anything online to back this up, and from what I have seen there have not been any controlled, randomized studies of protein and pre-eclampsia. So I’ll file it away in my brain as something interesting, and just view the protein thing as something that may help prevent pre-e, not some sort of golden guarantee.

So then after the review on our nutrition she brought out a white board and asked us to brainstorm benefits of breastfeeding… for mother and baby. Pretty much stuff I knew… baby gets immunities, gets the right type of milk at the right time, there’s bonding benefits, even weight loss benefits because you burn so many calories…. and more. And of course the men all chorused, “It’s free!” ;) She also encouraged us to contact Le Leche League and go to their meetings, which I fully intend on doing!

They handed out some cards that had a question on each one. Open-ended questions to spark conversation. We were encouraged to pick one to read and even answer if we felt like it. Someone asked, “What scares me most about having this baby is…” I thought on my answer for a minute, because my big fears aren’t with the labor and delivery. I said that what scares me most is having the baby no longer be a part of me… no longer be protected inside me, no longer going everywhere with me. Once he’s born I lose that security, that constant reassurance… I have to let other people hold him! And to me, that’s really freaking scary. (I could also have said I’m scared about handling this mom thing, because that’s true too!)

When we were handed those cards Den started sniggering to himself. I couldn’t see what his cards said, so I was in the dark until after class when he informed me that one of his conversation starters was, “The reason I am attending this class is…” Quite obviously Den knows what his answer would have been! (“She made me!”)

We went over more anatomy as well. She had a big board with a uterus-with-baby cross-section and a bunch of terms to fill in for the different parts. It seems childish, sure… but it was actually quite helpful. I now know that the official medical term for the tailbone is the coccyx – who knew? Some were pretty obvious, like the rectum, vagina, cervix, uterus. The amniotic fluid was labelled as the “forewaters” and the “hindwaters”… seeing how the head acts like a little cork. It was something Den had mentioned after our first video last week… how little gushes keep happening when the baby moves, and then a big gush when the baby finally emerges… the hindwaters being released. And she mentioned how the body will keep making more amniotic fluid all through labor… it’s not something that will ever empty until that baby comes out! (That was one of the things a friend told me about… all the fluid and how it just kept on gushing all through labor!)

This class’s video was a Nova video, not a Bradley one. It started with an embryo dividing, becoming a little multi-celled organism… and all I could think was, “That was Devin, in a little petri dish.” It showed it “compacting” and then becoming a blastocyst… my mind on how in the operating room they told us our little embryo was “compacting” and that it was a really good sign. It was really amazing to stare at that image of an embryo and try to comprehend how it becomes a fully functional human being. Just amazing how far Devin has come since July. Wow.

The movie then showed the embryo implant and develop in the womb… growing and changing. Then it showed a fetus in the womb… I have no idea if they actually got a live look at that, it looked pretty real, or if it was some sort of model, but it was… freaky. Den later told me that was the COOLEST thing EVER.

The end of the video did show a baby being born, and I still think that watching a baby’s head emerge from a huge hair-covered vagina is just really not pretty. At all. So I’m glad I get to watch this every week, maybe by the end of this course it won’t give me such an “ick” reaction, lol! It is interesting, however, seeing how the baby’s head comes out, then the body corkscrews around to fit out of the birth canal easier. That’s weird.

Lastly of course we practiced our relaxation. After I ran to the bathroom to pee… yeeeesh, 2 hours is hard to sit through. lol Den got my pillows all set up for me, this time I brought two big new pillows, and I managed to drape myself over them much more comfortably than last week. I’m even getting used to having my lower arm behind me (rather than laying on it, which I cannot do anymore due to decreased blood flow making my arm fall asleep when I try!). It was so nice and relaxing. I love listening to those meditation CDs. I’m starting to think I need to bring one to my L&D room with us. Den thinks they’re cheesy, but I love them.

Den does really well during class. When we left he expressed some concern that during “relaxation” his natural reaction is to crack jokes. I think it’s funny during practice… but he knows I probably won’t find it funny when I’m actually in labor. I think it’s just worrying for no reason, though. Sometimes he does crack jokes at an inappropriate moment… though it’s usually when I’m just having one of my moodswings and he doesn’t KNOW it’s an inappropriate moment. But when the shit is really happening he snaps into serious mode. I mean that other morning when I crawled into bed near-crying because of back pain all he could do was comfort me and rub my back, even though I’d just woken him from a dead sleep way too early in the morning. So I have no doubt that, when I’m actually in labor, he’s going to be completely devoted to doing what I need. It’s hard to act the same way when it’s just a practice run, as it were.

The instructors actually told us that in all the people who have come through her class, only one recently has hired a doula for the birth. They pointed out that the purpose of the Bradley classes is to educate your husband (or whomever) to be your birth coach… to give them enough tools and information to effectively be a doula. It’s not just asking them to stand at your side and hold your hand… it’s training them with all the medical knowledge to help you make good decisions, practicing with them and showing them what you need. I am feeling really encouraged by all of this. This is the reason I chose the Bradley class: Den didn’t want a doula, and while I knew he would be a good support I needed more than simple emotional support. I needed Den to know what’s going on and be able to effectively translate for me. I needed him to not panic. And I really really hope this class is going to give him the tools he needs to do that. I know he has the desire to, that’s not an issue… as much as he’s doing it because I asked him to, he also was the one wanting to be the labor coach (though he didn’t say it in those words, of course).

I am just really encouraged at this point. And pleased.

Okay so I know I’m behind on writing about things… I’ll blame it on the little alien in my belly who keeps doing cartwheels in there. It’s very distracting!

First I’ll write about the chiropractic appointment, then I’ll write about this week’s birth class.

So I got there, checked in, paid my copay. The receptionist took me to a small TV viewing room to get me to sign some papers and fill out a sheet of basically “where it hurts”. I also had to watch a 5-minute video about chiropractic care… which actually was pretty interesting.

After I was done all that the doctor came in. It’s not the same doctor that Den sees – Den sees the husband, and I saw the wife. They’ve both been doing chiro for 30 years, they said, which is pretty cool. She was very nice, very friendly… she chatted about her own pregnancy 30 years ago, and her daughter’s, and the many pregnant women who come in to see them. She’s maybe a little quirky, but quirky in the same way that I am, so it was good. :)

The first thing she did is take a thorough history from me. Any back/hip pain and injuries I’ve ever had… any other medical conditions (like the depression)… and so on. After that she had me stand up, then had me bend to the right and left, lean forward, move my head to the right and left and up and down… to check that I didn’t have anything seriously wrong, and to observe. She also checked my reflexes and sensation to make sure I had no numbness in my legs or anything.

She also checked my shoes (no heels, she said that was good!) and asked how much weight I’ve gained so far in pregnancy. She said I look fantastic and I’m carrying pregnancy very well. :)

She did observe that my spine is curved a little to the left. This throws my body off a tiny bit, and is likely the cause of my current hip pain. She said it’s probably been there all along, but the extra strain on my body from the pregnancy is causing some issues.

She said normally they do an x-ray on your first visit so they can get a clear look at your spine, but they don’t x-ray pregnant women… so my protocol is a little different because there may be something more at play that they won’t be able to see until they can x-ray me, right now they’re just going on observation and touch. But it’s certainly enough to do something to help me through my pregnancy. After the baby arrives I can decide if I want to continue returning for care or not. (At this point I think I will!)

She then had me lay on my back on a table. First thing she did was check for hip pain… lifted my legs up one by one, then got me to cross my foot on my opposite leg and let my muscles relax. She noticed that my hips are quite tight – she said the range of motion really ought to be a lot more than what I have (another issue I’ve had all my life… do not even talk to me about the horror that was stretching in gymnastics!), but there was no pain. So she said the issue probably doesn’t originate in my hip, which she said is good!

Next she put me on my stomach on the table (that had a springloaded panel for my protruding belly) so she could check my spine. She pressed gently in a few spots in my very lower back. “This?” “Fine.” “This?” “Fine.” “This?” “Ow.” “Ah ha, there it is.” So quickly as that she found exactly which vertibra is causing my issues. She said that some nerves from the lower spine go down the butt and back of the leg, but some go over the hip and down the front of the leg. Bingo, that’s the one. I could feel it too, which she’d put even a little pressure on it it popped. Not like a loud crack, just a little pop that actually felt good. I was surprized. She was pleased that it was so eager to get back into proper alignment. “Oh! Did you feel that?” she said. “It’s just begging to go back!”

She also felt my upper back, between my shoulder blades, and said I am very tight through there. Oh yeah. I can feel it. She rubbed it a little bit to try to get it all to relax, but dang, it’s so tight it hurts. That’s probably a side-effect of sitting at my computer desk… I have a horrible tendency to slouch forward and I get really bad pain between my shoulderblades just from everything tensing up back there. (One of the many reasons I much prefer to be in bed, propped up with pillows… everything is supported!)

There were a few more little things she did… tapped on my lower back at specific points with a little rubber mallet, and pressed with her fingers. She also had me on my side and gave me a little stretch. Then she had me lay on my back with little wedges under different points of my hip… high on my left, low under my buttocks on my right.

It was all much more gentle than I ever really pictured. And Ms. C, you’re right, it felt so good! I was laying there thinking, “Damn, everyone should do this!” In a way I think it was better than a professional massage, because I really felt something shift inside. Plus it was so precise… I think I liked that part of it. She was very detailed, very precise in what she did. It was obvious she had a thorough understanding of everything and every touch was calculated to do something beneficial.

I think I was most pleased just by the attention and time I got. I’ve been to a lot of doctors who don’t even bother to take a full history on the first visit, who just write a prescription based on what you say in 30 secnds. (I’ve had that happen at least twice, and I was SERIOUSLY bothered both times.) I also hate going to a doctor’s visit just to be shuffled in and shuffled out like you are wasting someone’s precious time. This chiro appointment never felt rushed at all. She listened to everything I had to say, asked a lot of questions, encouraged feedback, and really took her time. I wish all doctors could be like that.

Some of the questions she asked were about family history… if my parents have any back problems (Dad does, he throws his back out about once a year – Mom doesn’t)… if depression runs in my family (yep, dad’s… though I only found that out this past year!). She said, “So physically do you take after your dad’s side then?” I laughed. Yes. Both my brother and I do… we got the tall lanky genes (I’m not lanky anymore, but I sure was!), complete with back issues and depression. We even got dad’s blue eyes. There’s no doubt which side of the family we take after more! Mom’s side is much much shorter, and the health issues they deal with seem to thus far be Diabetes and Huntington’s. The depression doesn’t seem so bad now, does it. lol

The best part is that our insurance does cover chiropractic care… up to 20 visits in a calendar year. I’d love to go back once a month or so in general, but my focus right now is my pregnancy, and preventing this pain from getting worse. I do NOT want another repeat of that episode I had. So I have another appointment for next Wednesday and I’ll see how frequently she wants to see me. Den pointed out to me that I do not have 20 weeks left in this pregnancy, so even if she wants to see me once a week I still won’t use up all my visits. (The thought left me a little stunned. I have how many weeks left? 11 until my due date? Ackack.)

My back was a little sore when I drove to work after my appointment, but the rest of the day has been great. I’m looking forward to next week!

I am having a cranky evening… headache brought on by cabin-fevered pets. (I swear, if I hear one more crash-bang out there I’m going to flip my lid.)

Devin is SO active. He’s been kicking me what feels like non-stop all day. My belly is currently bouncing around in front of my eyes as he kicks and punches. I hope this doesn’t mean he’ll be an ADHD kid like his dady, LOL.

My uterus seems to be getting big enough so that it (and Devin) are sometimes pressing on my ribs. On my right side, of course, being slightly lopsided and all. (In fact, currently my belly is totally lopsided, I have some large body part sticking up on my right side, lol!) It’s just a very slight ache… just kind of makes me want to rub my ribs now and then.

Den came to bed tonight grinning silly and mentioned how I’d come wandering (errr, dashing) out of the bedroom half-naked to run into the bathroom. He was grinning about my big belly sticking out. He thinks it is the best thing EVER. I sometimes forget I look as pregnant as I do – from my vantage point it’s just a bump. From his vantage point – and when I catch myself in a mirror – it’s like WHOA! So he just loves to look at it and touch it and kiss it. I think he’s as enamored with my pregnant body as I am. :) It’s very cute to see him so giddy!

Kiddo’s pressing on my bladder again. I can feel things shifting in there ever so slowly, and this pressure that builds on my bladder. Very strange.

::

I am freaking out just slightly over all the stuff that is left to buy. I have a detailed list of costs in excel (anyone surprized by this?). The gear alone is close to $2000 worth. This is all the furniture, gear, bottles, bedding, bathing, safety stuff. It does NOT include the $120 left to spend on diapers, nor does it include any clothes. I’m trying to stay calm until the baby shower, but it’s really freaking me out that we have nothing save a crib and mattress, some clothes, and diaper covers.

And then there are even worse recesses of my brain that is all What if we get all the gear stuff, but have no toys?! Or books?! As if this is a huge concern, because, you know, newborns don’t need toys, and it’s not as if we can’t go buy toys when we need some. But you try telling that it’s not a big deal to a pregnant lady in her third trimester in the middle of the night. These are the things we worry about – that the baby will have no toys. So then I add toys to my registry. And the next night I freak out that people will buy toys instead of the stuff we really need. Then I delete the toys. And so on and so forth. It’s a nasty cycle, I tell you. (I think I’ve finally settled for having a couple of toys on the registry, but only a couple. Nice compromise.)

::

This morning was another sore hip morning. Not the shooting nerve pain, but the really sore achy hips from sleeping on them wrong. This could get to be very frustrating.

Yesterday Den had his monthly chiropractic appointment and asked if they see pregnant women. He was told they do indeed, and see quite a few of them. So I called and booked an appointment for tomorrow morning. I’m a little nervous, because the whole “adjustment” thing creeps me out a little, but I’m hoping that it’ll help somehow.

I’m just glad that the aches and pains have been limited.

::

I have a headache and this screen is making it worse, so I have to go to bed now.

Ahhhhhhhh, Devin has the hiccups!!! This is the first time I’ve ever noticed hiccups! I’ve kept an “eye” out for them, since my friends all mention it frequently, but any movement from Devin is his normal stuff, nothing rhythmic or repeating. Until today! Feels like I have a twitch in my stomach… he’s been moving around a lot all day, so I rubbed the spot as usual… that’s when I noticed the twitch was happening every 2-3 seconds. Twitch…. twitch…. twitch. AH HA! HICCUPS!!

Tee hee, the smallest things amuse me so very much. :)

I’ve been awake since 6am. It is now closing in on 8pm and I am seriously zonked (yes, in my world that is a word). I am somehow functioning without naps…

And starving. I ate a nice big salad (with chicken and egg) at noon before I went to work, but unfortunately the snacking while at work wasn’t all that plentiful nor healthy. So by the time I got home at 7? Yeah. Starving. I sucked down a large bowl of soup and am now eating an apple. Boy apples are good.

::

The last couple days I think Devin’s been head-down. Why do I think this? Because first of all, while at work I’m getting this general, constant need to pee. There’s just some weird pressure down there that wasn’t there before. And then there are the little wiggles. It feels like someone is literally tickling my bladder from the inside. Not strong kicks, but little movement really low… I’m thinking hands? I still get some kicks up around my belly button. Hmmmm.

::

Earlier today my SIL (the one who’s pregnant) forwarded me an email from a friend of hers. Friend is getting rid of some toddler toys, SIL doesn’t have any storage space for things in the future so she wondered if I wanted any of them. One of them was the Drop and Roar Dino! It had already made it’s way onto my “wish list for the future” because it looks so damn cool. I really hope we can get it… how cool!! (It may be one of those toys that I play with more than the kid. I understand this, lol!) Another toy was a little piano. Yay!

On my drive home I was thinking about these toys I hopefully will be getting and thinking about next Christmas. I was tired and my mind was really wandering a lot, but I was just thinking about wish lists and toys and family and next Christmas we will have a son. I almost started crying in the car (not recommended while driving). What an amazing, amazing thought.

::

Need sleep now. Intelligent thought later.

I was unable to post last night because I didn’t get home until 9pm and I was frankly exhausted by then. I should not be out driving past 8. Just so tired. :(

What happened to throw off my day was… snow. A lot of snow. It snowed all morning, delaying everything. Most of my normal work things for Mondays were cancelled (the orders), but there were no volunteers going to be there so I went in at around 2:30 after the (steep) driveway had been plowed). Me and a coworker had to clean and feed the entire sanctuary. But it was okay. :)

Because I had been sitting at home all morning I used that time to be productive, since it was “normal business hours.” I made a ton of phone calls, things that were on my to-do list.

* I called the hospital I’ll be delivering at to register for some classes. They are really cheap ($10 per class, the tour is free). I obviously don’t need labor classes as we’re paying good money to take Bradley classes, but there were other things I did want to make sure I attended.
– Breastfeeding Class, Part I is booked for March 13, Part II (for after baby arrives) is booked for May 6.
– Infant Care Class is booked for March 6.
– The tour of the L&D is set for Feb 2.

* I contacted a local La Leche League group to find out details. Their next meeting is Feb 1, in the morning… so I think I will go to that. I’m a little nervous about going to a group situation like that, but I’ve heard from so many people how beneficial LLL is, and I’d like to meet them before I have Devin.

* I called a local Pediatrician’s office to set up a consult. I was a little nervous about this because we don’t have many Ped offices in the immediate vicinity, and I wasn’t really keen on searching neighboring cities. This one I called is literally just down the road from us. The receptionist was extremely friendly. She congratulated me on being pregnant, asked a few questions, and told me a lot about the practice. They have multiple pediatricians there, two nurses. They are open for regular hours M-F, with an hour walk-in appointments in the morning and “sick visit” hours in the evening. They have two separate lines to call… one to book normal appointments, and one for sick visits where they get you the soonest possible appointment time. She also said they have 7 day coverage for emergencies.

So that all sounded good. She booked me for a consult with one of the peds for March 5, which was the soonest consult appointment they had I guess. I asked her what the practice’s general philosophy on vaccines and breastfeeding were. She said, “Well… whatever works for you, I mean… whatever you want.” She said they have some families there who do not vaccinate. This is huge! Yay! I’ve heard stories of friends of mine whose doctors literally kick them out if they do not agree to vaccinate their children on the doctor’s schedule. The fact that they have families there who do not vaccinate is a GREAT sign. The breastfeeding “whatever works for you” is a little laisse-faire, it probably doesn’t speak of a strong breastfeeding support system there, but hopefully they’re supportive enough not to give bad advice. I am trying to make sure I have a good support system in place for breastfeeding, if I need help. I know peds aren’t exactly trained in lactation support!

* I also emailed with my MIL about my shower. I had mentioned those little registry card inserts for invites, and MIL thought that was a good idea… but she simply does not have the availability to go get some from BRU anytime this week. So I offered to.

And that’s what I did after work. I left work at 6 and drove to the mall. I ate dinner (Subway! No greasy foods after all the heartburn I’ve been having – though I did also get a milkshake) and then made my way to BRU to get those registry cards printed. And of course I got a scanner and added a few more things to my registry to finish it off. I couldn’t find any white newborn socks though, that frustrated me. I just want a big package of white newborn socks. They had a ton of larger sizes… nothing in newborn. Grrr. Guess I’ll have to pick some up elsewhere, it’s not a big deal. I added a 2-pack of Born Free bottles. I have a Breastflow starter kit on my registry, but… options, need options. I keep hearing that babies choose which bottles they prefer. Not like I’m going to be introducing a bottle for a while, but just in case I figure it’s good to have on-hand. I looked at some playmat/gym things and changed my mind on which one I wanted. And then I added a bunch of baby books to my registry, in case people are looking for small items… and I certainly want to encourage books!

Oh, and then I’m standing in the middle of BRU staring at the cribs and I call Den. “Den, should I just order the crib we want while I’m here?” Den basically says, ummm yeah, duh. So I sat down to do so. The guy writes down the crib info and types it in, then runs into the back of the store. He comes back and says, “Yep, we have one back there!”

Hold. The. Phone.

Buying a crib is such a huge thing. I don’t know why it makes me so nervous, but it does. A crib. A freaking CRIB. For a baby. It’s a big piece of furniture. And not only do I always get some anxiety when purchasing big items (what if I change my mind??), but it’s for our baby. I’m not sure I’m really ready to be ordering a crib!

BUT I figured I’d have 4-6 weeks for it to arrive and by then I’d be okay with bringing a crib home. I was NOT figuring on having the crib available immediately. Not ready!!

So I stuttered a little bit and managed to get out, “Oh! Good!” However, despite me having the SUV at the time, the guy looked SERIOUSLY doubtful about my ability to fit it in an SUV. “It’s big,” he said. “Really big.” So we are going to need to arrange for BIL to help us pick it up in his truck. Whew. This gives me at least a few days to get used to the idea that we’re going to have a crib in the house.

Not that we have anywhere to put it. Baby’s room is not a baby’s room. Crib will have to go into the basement, un-assembled, for quite some time. Baby-steps here.

Oh and I bought the mattress too.

(Den’s comment last night was, “So we have a crib and a mattress. When is the kid going to use the crib?” “Ummm. When we decide to move him to his own room.” “Right. So the one thing we have, we aren’t going to use for a long time.” “Right.” “Okay then.” But we were given money specifically for the crib so… oh well! Crib it is!)

On my way out of the mall I stopped by Target to buy some new underwear. I wear a specific kind of underwear that I LOVE: Gilligan & O’Malley. Very very comfy. Unfortunately some of mine are starting to do the butt-creep. I’m not entirely convinced my butt is getting bigger, but things are definitely stretching and my undies are getting aweful tight across my belly. So I wanted to do what other ladies have recommended, and buy a size up. No biggie right? HA!! They have different styles: bikini, brief, hipster and thong. They have multiple sizes. They seemed to have every conceivable combination except large bikinis. I found ONE package out of a whole huge shelf. I was very unamused (and sweaty, by that point). So at least I now have one package (of three) in a size that is comfortable. Grrr. Need more undies!

And then I drove home and tried not to fall asleep while doing so.

But at least I got to cross a bunch of things off my to-do list and feel quite accomplished. Though, how come I got all that done in one day and yet I still feel like I didn’t really do much with my time?

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PS – My SIL has her big ultrasound on Thursday! I am SO excited to find out what Devin’s going to have as a playmate!!

You probably noticed I moved the blog to a different URL. I’ve been meaning to do it for months now, since “ttc” really didn’t fit anymore, but I kept putting it off figuring it’d be complicated. Yeah. It took me about 30 seconds. I just hope everyone found their way over here.

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I’ve managed to get a handle on the pain, and I’d discovered what a large part of the problem was/is: sitting in my chair at my desk. That’s where I eat my meals, at my desk. So this morning I get up and get a bowl of cereal like usual and sit down… and within minutes the pain starts mounting. So yesterday when I woke up with minor pain and sat down to let it go away? I inadvertently made it far far worse. I know that chair is in good shape, I’ve never had issues with it before and it’s got lots of padding… but something in my body has changed enough that it DOES NOT like that chair. So I spent a lot of time this morning walking around (walking seems to loosen things up). I finally put a pillow on the chair just so I could sit and eat, and that worked okay… but it still wasn’t comfortable by any stretch. It’s a good thing I have my laptop, as it seems I will be spending far more time reclined in bed, doing work here. Granted it’s what I have been doing a lot lately, but now I apparently don’t have much of a choice.

Den sees a chiropractor monthly, and he has an appointment on wednesday… so he’s going to ask them if they see pregnant patients and find out about getting an appointment set for me. Our insurance covers chiropractic care (other than a small copay), and I’ve heard from several other people that dealt with pinched nerves/sciatica that chiro care is the only thing that helped them. Hey it’s worth a try. Even if the whole idea of chiropractic adjustments kind of freak me out.

Other than that I’ll just continue to be careful how I sleep (I can sleep on my left side, but only at certain angles… if I sleep directly on my hip it really really hurts), avoid sitting at that chair, and try to make sure I stretch my legs frequently. I wonder if I warm bath would help at all? This isn’t muscle pain like that one time I had really bad leg pain… so I don’t know how much it would help.

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Devin’s moved. He has his fingers or his toes really low down… he’s been tickling me down there for about an hour. Very very strange feeling, I must say! I’m not used to feeling movement that low.

And now he’s back to kicking my belly button, like normal.

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I want to see this, but it is not showing anywhere near us. :( I sure hope they are able to expand to more locations. I’ve added it to my Netflix, but it’s not yet available… it says February 2008 so hopefully I’ll get to watch it before I give birth!

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I am just so excited… about things that probably most people aren’t excited about. I’m excited about going into labor and seeing what it’s like and birthing my beautiful baby. I’m excited about breastfeeding. I’m excited about using my cloth diapers. And then of course there’s the normal excitement over meeting my baby for the first time… seeing what he looks like… seeing if he has hair, if he has a big nose (heh), seeing his precious little fingers and toes.

Woke up this morning feeling like Devin was pressing hard on my left ovary. I can’t say that’s what was happening, but that’s what it felt like. Peeing didn’t relieve the pressure, and bending over made it worse. I got myself a bowl of cereal sat down at my desk in the hopes it would go away soon.

Unfortunately over the next half hour it progressed from left belly pressure to pain in my left pelvis and hip. PAIN. So much I could barely walk. I thought for a little bit it was one of my infamous stomach aches starting up. But it didn’t go that way… it went down my left pelvis. I tried walking (hobbling) around to loosen whatever it was up. I tried going potty, hoping that would help. I sat in my chair and shifted around. Nothing helped. I was really worried I’d end up having to call/go into the hospital, as sure as I was it wasn’t any kind of labor pains or anything wrong with the baby (he was moving around still), there’s still that fear. So I was walking around going, “Please, no, I don’t want to go to the hospital!” I decided if the pain didn’t go away during the day that I’d call.

I ended up crawling into bed whimpering. Den woke up and asked me if I was okay, I just said, “No.” I explained to him what I was feeling and he said it sounds like my sciatic nerve. (After reading up on it, it sure sounds like it to me.) I layed on my side (my right side) and he massaged my left side and hip and yeah… I could definitely feel spots where he’d press and it would send shooting pain down my left leg. It was a constant dull ache, with frequent, random stabbing pains in my hip and side. NOT fun. At all.

So I ended up laying there in bed for over an hour, surrounded and propped up by about 14 pillows (okay that’s a slight exaggeration, it’s more like 4). I found a position that was least painful, on my side, and just didn’t move. I wasn’t tired (as if I could sleep anyways), so I just chatted away to Den about everything under the sun. He was a very good listener, I must say.

I still have a bit of an ache/pressure against what feels like my ovary, though. I have no idea if that’s even related though. It could be just a coincidence.

It did get me thinking that I should probably start training my supervisor on how to do the things that I do at work… I took them over a year ago and it’s changed a lot since she did them. We were planning to have me transition things over to her starting mid-February, but then today I was thinking what if I did end up in the hospital, even for a couple of days? No one would know what to do. That’d be bad.

Good grief this kid is active today! And he’s getting ever stronger, he shakes my whole belly sometimes now. Or else he just rolls around, which is a strong feeling in and of itself, and not entirely pleasant!

I slept until 9am this morning (then I just kind of layed there for an hour)… wow, that’s a long stretch for me! (I think I fell asleep shortly after 4am.) Part of the reason I’m having troubles sleeping for a long stretch is that I wake up all sweaty. It’s gross. It’s like I’m hot and cold all at once… but honestly I think the sweats aren’t because I’m hot. And when I do sweat it starts evaporating and I wake up freezing cold. So now I’m sleeping in a nightshirt and still waking up at least once feeling yucky.

Everyone kept saying how lucky I was (or rather how lucky Den was) that I’m pregnant during the winter, as “pregnant women are heaters!” Yeah. Apparently not THIS pregnant woman. I’m still cold all the time. I do get warm at work with walking up and down the stairs, but at home? At night? Any other time? COLD. I live in my turtlenecks. I’m sleeping in a nightshirt or I can’t fall asleep because my shoulders are cold. Den’s always said I was cold-blooded, lol.

Oh and my hip? This morning it was not happy with me. I was ticked because after my first sleep (7:30am until about midnight) I felt GREAT! No hip pain at all! Then I go sleep some more and wake up in pain. Way to tease me, body. So I felt like a stereotypical pregnant lady, limping/waddling around the grocery store this morning. The hip is feeling much better by now… it only lasts for a couple of hours after I get up (so far), thank goodness. If it continues like this I may check into seeing a chiropractor about it… I’ve never been, but Den goes to a chiro monthly and we know our insurance covers it (all but a small copay). I know some friends swear by seeing a chiropractor when pregnant. I’m a little skeeved by the idea, to be honest… but that’s my personal hangup.

I’m falling asleep again… at 9pm. *sigh* Guess sleeping in didn’t really help reset my internal clock much.

I posted my normal belly pics in the belly pics page, but here are some extras.