A friend linked me to this storage collection by Ikea. Very affordable!!
Antonius

I still need to stop by the Salvation Army a few times to see if there’s any dressers there we can pick up. A brand new $300 chest of drawers is NOT in our budget… but we’re going to need something for storage. It’s either I find something second-hand or get some plastic stuff at Ikea or Walmart. Blah.

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I read my new American Baby magazine (pretty darn short, if you ask me – not much substance, a good amount of ads in it) and saw another ad from Fisher-Price. Yet again, it showed a product that I really liked… and that I not only cannot find on the Fisher-Price website, but I can’t find it ANYWHERE online. Mounting frustration. Then I found this: “The Zen collection from Fisher Price is the company’s product offering exclusively for independent, specialty retailers.” Those bastards! I bet the high chair I saw in another ad is something else I can’t find anywhere. Bugger it. I canNOT find a high chair that I like. Guess we won’t be getting one for a while. (At least it’s not a necessity for a newborn!) (To see the one I want, view their highchairs and click on “Comparison Chart.” I want the Healthy Care High Chair – not the Rainforest one, the other one… I really dislike the Rainforest print!)

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Some simple canvas totes that aren’t ugly and are cheap. Walmart!
Brown
Whitmore, Cappuccino

Plus I have a few of these storage baskets already in my house, they look nice enough, maybe I’ll just get a bunch to use for Devin’s room. I’d still need shelves, but still.

Well, I took pictures this morning. I feel like dog doo, so they certainly aren’t the best photos of me, maternity or not. At least you can’t really tell the glowing red around my nose. I don’t really need a photo of that memorialized forever.

You can, however, notice a tiny bump where my belly button is starting to push out.

And if you scroll down through the last few weeks you can see how weird my hair is. Some days it’s straight with a little wave… some days it’s wicked curly. Cool huh?

Just putting this all here so I don’t lose it. From the Mass Gov website.

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Chapter 111: Section 110A. Tests of newborn children for treatable disorders or diseases

Section 110A. The physician attending a newborn child shall cause said child to be subjected to tests for phenylketonuria, cretinism and such other specifically treatable genetic or biochemical disorders or treatable infectious diseases which may be determined by testing as specified by the commissioner. The commissioner may convene an advisory committee on newborn screening to assist him in determining which tests are necessary.

The department shall make such rules pertaining to such tests as accepted medical practice shall indicate.

The provisions of this section shall not apply if the parents of such child object thereto on the grounds that such test conflicts with their religious tenets and practices.

* *

Chapter 111: Section 109A. Treatment of infants’ eyes at time of birth

Section 109A. The physician, or hospital medical officer registered under section nine of chapter one hundred and twelve, if any, personally attending the birth of a child shall treat his eyes within two hours after birth with a prophylactic remedy furnished or approved by the department. Whoever violates this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars.

* *

Chapter 111: Section 67F. Newborn hearing screening tests

Section 67F. For the purposes of this section, the words “newborn infant” shall mean an infant under three months of age, and the words “hearing screening test” shall mean a test to detect hearing thresholds of 30 decibels or greater in either ear in the speech frequency range.

A hearing screening test shall be performed on all newborn infants in the commonwealth in the birthing hospital or birthing center, or in the hospital from which the newborn infant is discharged to home. Such test shall be performed before the newborn infant is discharged from the birthing center or hospital to the care of the parent or guardian, or as the department may by regulation provide; provided, however, that such test shall not be performed if the parents or guardian of the newborn infant object to the test based upon the sincerely held religious beliefs of the parent or guardian. The hospital or birthing center shall inform a parent or guardian of the newborn infant and the newborn infant’s primary care physician of such infant’s failure to pass the test, or if such infant was not successfully tested. Such notification shall occur prior to discharge whenever possible, and in any case no later than ten days following discharge. The hospital or birthing center so informing the parent and physician shall provide information regarding appropriate follow-up for a screening failure or a missed screening.

[snip]

* *

Note that I cannot find ANY mention of regulation of giving newborns Vitamin K.

Still sick. Sometimes I can breathe through one nostril just fine, and other times – like right now – I can’t breathe at all. And I despise breathing through my mouth. It creeps me out. I have no other symptoms, however…. just clogged sinuses. No cough, no aches. Just frequent sneezing (because this all tickles my nose!) and of course a really raw nose from blowing so very much. :(

I felt so sexy tonight, trying to sleep. I’m wearing socks (I tried that “put vaporub on your feet and then put socks on” thing – didn’t seem to help anything except my feet were warmer), underwear with a panty liner (just in case I sneeze really hard), no shirt because I have vaporub smeared all over my chest, chapstick all over my lips to help with the dryness from the mouth breathing, and some petroleum under my nose to help the soreness. Just lovely right? I am the picture of SEXY.

I do think it’s on it’s way out, though, which is a good thing. I’ve just tried to remain positive, knowing that my body will kick this virus out soon enough and this is all just a short-term issue. If I had to work full-time I’d be far more miserable, since sleep is kind of an on-again off-again thing. I gave up on the sleep idea for tonight, by the way. Highly overrated. So not working for me right now. As it is I do have to go pick up an order at 8am, but from there I can decide if I want to come back home to sleep or go to work and get it over with so I can come home early. It depends how I feel at the time.

I will say, however, that sleeping with your mouth open under blankets that are covered in dog fur is really not all that pleasant. I spent half my time plucking stray hairs off my [sticky from chapstick] lips. Blech.

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On a very happy note, I have been unisom-free for 3 days now, and no puking!! Because I wasn’t feeling sick while on the unisom I couldn’t really tell you when it went away. The last time I tried going off it was a failure, but it was SO brutal that I really do suspect that something else was going on at the time because of the other aches and pains I had. So who really knows when the actual morning sickness declined. Sometime after 20 weeks for sure. Maybe by 24 weeks, maybe not. But here I am, 27 weeks and feeling good!! Only had morning sickness through my first two trimesters. lol

Oh plus? I can drink orange juice now!! I started while I was away for Christmas, as my parents had some. It’s still not my favorite drink, but it’s definitely something that is good for me to consume, and it’s something I can have with my stupid iron pill. Cheer!

Sometimes I think that if I hadn’t had a really bad time with morning sickness that I’d be feeling really guilty for getting off easy. Sometimes I still think that. I feel so good! Even having a sinus thingie right now, the rest of me feels fine. I read of some of the other girls in my groups dealing with atrocious hip and pelvic pain or frequent kicks to the cervix and I am just so thankful. Hell I still don’t even wake up to pee. (The benefits of carrying high!) My fingers and feet aren’t swollen, my boobs aren’t all that sore, my hip pain is completely manageable just with a couple of pillows in bed. My face has completely cleared up. And my belly, it’s so round! It has this perfect round shape to it that I just adore.

Although that whole “my belly button isn’t sensitive at all!” thing? Today it was kind of feeling weird. So we’ll see what happens with that!

3 months left to go! Plenty of time for the aches and pains to hit. But still, 3 months seems so damn SHORT. Crap, we have so much to do.

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Someone on a forum became an aunt yesterday and she posted pics of the newborn (she was there for the birth). Newborn pics never really affected me much (except Kel’s Eric, I bawled like a baby when I saw his first pictures!), but boy does it hit home now. I look at that small, pink, naked little creature and I just want to cuddle it close. I imagine it being my Devin after going through labor with him. How amazing is it going to be? I’m sure I can’t even imagine. I am so looking forward to meeting him, to being his mommy. What an honor it will be.

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I am really good at making lists. I like making lists…. it gives me a sense of control and confidence about situations. I have a list or chart for everything: the baby’s layette (what we’ve bought/received so far), all the baby gear (all priced and color-coded according to what store it’s available at, categorized and prioritized), all the diaper supplies (what’s needed and how much it’s estimated to cost, then another sheet with everything I’ve purchased to date, how much I paid, the standard price, how much I saved, and how far off budget I was); lists and documents for what to bring to the hospital, who to invite to the baby shower, who to call/text/email when the baby’s born, what books I have yet to buy, my birth preferences, and of course a giant to-do list. That’s the biggie.

I posted that to-do list on one of my forums where we were all sharing “what we have left to do.” The other girls responded with, “Holy crap!” Apparently I reminded them of stuff they’d forgotten. A couple girls said they were using my list as a template. LOL! At first I was a little intimidated by how much is on my list, and shouldn’t it be shorter? But then I started crossing things off and I realized how much of a positive tool it can be. I love checking things off my to-do lists. Plus it shows me how much I’ve already accomplished, so I can look back and feel good about myself, instead of thinking that I haven’t gotten anything done. I’ve already made a pretty good dent on my January list. I’m feeling good.

One thing, however, is that I tend to get so caught up in the planning aspect of things (I love to plan!) and kind of forget about the present. My big belly and kicking child in-utero are a sharp reminder to me to not just focus on where I’m going, but where I am. I can plan plan plan how Devin’s room is going to look and how I’m going to decorate and which gear I’m going to get and how he’s going to look dressed in his cute clothes… but, ummm, in order to get there I still have to actually clean the house and put stuff together and get off my ass. I’m am giving myself a temporary “out” while I’m sick… though I still find myself doing weird things like rifling through the hall closet and moving things around without a real purpose in mind… just moving stuff and making it look tidier while I was chatting to Den yesterday morning. o.O Must be one of those nesting things. I am also keeping up with the kitchen… the dishes, the wiping-things-down and putting-things-away. Things that I tend to slip up on. I like having a clean kitchen.

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The kid is getting stronger. During my failed attempt at sleeping he was moving around a little – not a lot, but there was quite a bit of recurrent movement going on in my belly. (It’s funny how the movement shifts when I roll over.) A couple of times he kicked me pretty good though. It startles me when he does that, it shakes my whole belly and feels so weird inside. I think back to when all I could feel were tiny little flutters… how much it has changed!

He is certainly developing some sleeping/awake patterns, like the development notices say they will. He’s of course still very active in the evening, but he also tends to be awake in the early morning hours, as well… like right now.

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Oh it figures that I have to be up in half an hour and NOW I get tired!

Addendum to my previous post: I have gagged a few times today for no apparent reason. Just walking along and *ug*. But no puking. There’s a part of me that is very nervous at any sign of anything and wants to take my unisom right now, but I think I’m going to just see how this week goes.

This sinus thing is driving me nuts. I have a couple hours where I feel tons better and think that it’s on it’s way out, then I get all clogged up again and I get incredibly frustrated that I can’t breathe. It feels like I’m suffocating, and it sucks! Currently the blockage keeps shifting from side to side, which is also annoying me. How can it do that? Why?? Oh I sure hope this means things are letting go. Cause ugh I am tired of sitting surrounded by tissues.

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No belly button issues yesterday. He must have just been pressing funny on it on Sunday. Which is not surprizing to me… he’s been getting into some weird positions.

An hour ago I had to get up and walk around a bit, as however he was laying he felt very heavy and very strange. I could feel something firm and hard just below and to the left of my belly button… not sure if it was his head, his butt, or even his back pressing outwards across my belly. I wasn’t feeling any kicks or anything, so I have some suspicion he was facing my back at that point.

Now he’s back to the usual… it feels normal in there, and he’s kicking away at my right side.

Before Den fell asleep he got to feel some kicks and a BH contraction. Devin wasn’t being super active, but when I layed down I realized I was having a BH, so I told Den to feel my belly quick. He was surprized by how hard it was. As the BH faded Devin kicked his hand three times. lol Guess he was a little irritated by being squeezed like that. ;)

Just now my belly’s really twitching, so I pushed on one side… *kick kick* to my hand. I moved to the other side, again he kicked me. The third time he REALLY booted my belly. LOL That’s the first time he’s ever really responded to me… normally if I try to poke him he goes silent.

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BabyCenter says that he measures 14.5 inches long and over 2lbs this week. My little growing baby! He still has so much more to grow though. Gosh it’s exciting.

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The no-unisom and cold certainly have not affected my appetite at all. My body is sure to remind me when it’s been too long since I last snacked.

Since I’ve been home I’ve really cleaned up my eating habits, too. I ate two little chocolate cookies yesterday… that was all the junk I had. I know some of it is due to my being sick… I’m not drinking any milk other than in cereal, because I need to clear my sinuses out. So juice for me.

Still looking for more meal ideas though. It’s hard when I’m the one eating… since I have such picky tastes. Currently with me being sick I’m eating a lot of soup, pancakes, cereal. Nothing hard to make, and I’m loving the soup, lol. I try to mix eggs in there (though we just ran out), but I can only tolerate small amounts of scrambled eggs (for some reason they make me feel queasy… always have), and we don’t have an egg poacher. I think I need to invest in one. Toast! Oh yes, I love toast. The other day my boss gave me a rotisserie chicken that was fantastic, so we had a lot of chicken sandwiches. (Costco has THE best chicken!)

I’m drinking a lot of hot chocolate though, not because I really want hot chocolate but because it seems to work better than the sudafed and vaporub combined when it comes to helping clear my sinuses. The heat and steam, aahhhh. And no, I don’t like coffee and tea is a very very iffy thing. So hot chocolate it is for me.

Really though, I just want to feel better so I can concentrate on creating a weekly meals list and cooking properly, rather than stumbling into the kitchen to see what kind of soup I can have today.

Speaking of soup…. I think I need breakfast.

Just one of those days where I frequently look down at my belly and say, “What the hell are you DOING in there??” Or maybe not doing so much as… how are you sitting?? It’s like he’s sitting on my bladder… but not. It’s pressure against the front of my stomach… maybe my belly button which is causing the weird have-to-pee-but-don’t-have-to-pee feeling (it’s not the same “OMG have to pee!!” feeling that I get when he’s sitting down low). And I can feel… something… against the front of my uterus. No idea what it is. Just a “harder” spot than the rest of it. Freakin’ weird.

Edited to add: I was feeling some pressure again, so I was feeling around… definitely a “hard” spot just left of my belly button. As I was pressing around feeling how big it was (not very big), the lump “kicked” me! A foot maybe? Elbow?? How cool!!

Though I’m getting some bad heartburn. Yuck.

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I am feeling MUCH better today. I was up all night blowing my nose like crazy, then slept until noon. When I woke up I felt a TON clearer than I have the past three days. Yay!! I still kind of sound like a frog, I’m still stuffed up a little, but it’s not near as bad as it has been.

But guess who is now stuffed up? I feel so bad that I gave him what I have. :( Guess it was pretty hard to avoid, though. I told him he should have slept on the futon.

You know, I really need to stop talking about how good I’ve been having it. It just seems to invite problems.

My sinuses are feeling a lot better, so I actually fell asleep at a normal hour like a normal person. I fell asleep on my left side with a pillow between my knees.

I woke up on my right side with no pillow between my knees. And a very significantly painful left hip. I tried rolling onto my left side, but rolling onto that hip just felt like I was whacking myself on a large, painful bruise. Hip NOT happy. Roll back to my left, prop it up with a pillow… but it continued to ache. In fact, little weird tingly shivers of pain were all the way down my left leg. Must really have done something to some nerves. Urk.

I tried waiting it out for 20 minutes, but the pain didn’t get better so I thought getting up would be the best thing for it… stretch it out, get the blood flowing, and get off my sides. I got out of bed and nearly collapsed on my left leg. Holy pain batman! I can barely put any weight on that leg, the pain just shoots up my hip.

So I’m limping around right now. I even had the pleasure of walking into the kitchen (which took effort to get over the baby gate – You know it’s bad when you stand there wondering if you should just take it down…) to find out the cats knocked over the garbage can again. Gah. Try bending over to clean that up right now. Urk.

So yeah. Hip pain bad. SLEEP WITH PILLOWS.

Someone linked to this on a forum… the coolest thing! Belly Mapping

So tonight was our first Bradley class!

I had just spent all day cleaning the bedroom… until Den came home from work, then I sat and rested while he cleaned some. We are pretty darn pleased with the result (it’s not done yet, but it’s definitely a HUGE HUGE improvement over where it was!).

So anyways we were trying to get the last bit of wallscrubbing done before leaving for the class. I looked up the woman’s address (the classes are at her house) and got a map… I did try looking for the little info pamphlet she had sent me earlier, but being that I had opened it on the way to the airport before Christmas break I have NO idea where I stashed it. In the car? In one of my luggage bags? I have no clue. Inside that pamphlet was some written directions to her house. I figured, no biggie, it’s pretty local neighborhood, we have the house address. No worries, right?

Oh hell no. Apparently that entire neighborhood a) does not put house numbers on their goddamn mailboxes, b) does not put house numbers on their goddamn house and c) is really dark so even if there was a number on either we couldn’t see a freaking thing. Once I got out to ask at a house if we had found the right house, but only when I walked UP to the house I saw the house number on the side of the house, and it was the wrong one.

Also adding to the fun is that Den is really feeling sick now, and so he’s kind of headachy and short on temper. So he was pretty pissed – not at me, but just at being lost. I know it’s my fault for not having the directions, but ugh. It got pretty tense for a moment in the car.

Finally, 10 minutes late, I was going to ask at a different house where the hell #7 was… only to discover that the house I was walking up to was indeed #7. So Den and I hustled inside. We hate being late.

The teacher and her husband seem like very nice people. Very soft-spoken, kind, empathic type of people. There was only one other pregnant lady there, with her mom. I had to pee immediately after arriving.

The first hour or so was spent listening to the instructor talk about her two births, then starting to go over the Bradley workbook section on exercise and nutrition. The exercises she went over were quite interesting. Of course the kegel was mentioned. But also squatting (not doing “squats”, but actual squatting, almost sitting back on your haunches, for extended periods), and the “butterfly” which helps strengthen your leg muscles… and a couple others. The “homework” is to do some of each every week… the book gives a guideline, and to my relief it’s something like (3x, once per day). Hey I can handle that. 50 kegels though. Meh.

Nutrition was basically what I’d read before… 80-100 grams of protein a day, and a bunch of other recommendations that’s called the “Brewer’s Diet.” (I believe it’s on the Bradley website if you’re interested. Not too surprizingly, it just lists whole grains, citrus fruits, dark green veggies, protein, dairy, and some other things to eat on a daily basis, and some on a weekly basis. I have a hell of a time with eating a “balanced diet” because I’m so picky. I don’t really like any of the citrus fruits, I prefer the apples and pears and peaches. I really dislike veggies, especially green ones. I try to eat whole grains, but most of the time they taste “wrong” to me – like wheat bread compared to white bread. I’m sorry but there is no comparison, white bread is SO much better tasting to me. Dairy is not something I have a problem with, ever.

So I do have lots to work on this week, along with the cleaning and bill-paying.

So after the talking we watched a short birth video. That was interesting. Now I used to be rather addicted to birth shows like A Baby Story and especially House of Babies…. I stopped watching the former when the couples on the show became far far too irritating to me as I was being diagnosed as infertile, and stopped watching the second because all I was getting was re-runs. One very important distinction between the Bradley video and those TV shows: the TV shows blur out the vagina shots (well, most of them). Bradley video? Zoomed in. And I have to say, I watched it just fine, but all the muscle in my vagina tightened up and I sucked in my breath watching that head slowly come out. That skin was stretched TIGHT. It’s freaking amazing that it can stretch that much.

And plus? The baby’s head as it was coming out? Looked like some sort of squashed baby octopus. It was not pretty. All purple and squished to all hell… it really took me a moment to realize I was looking at a face, and I’m not kidding you. I knew that newborns look a little odd for a little bit, but I’ve never quite seen one THAT new. It wasn’t cute. I sure hope I don’t have the same reaction to my son (I’m sure I won’t, but…). Yikes man.

On the amazing side of things, Den watched the whole video, even the up close and person bits! And he said afterwards, “That wasn’t as bad as I always imagined.” He hastily pointed out to me that it was still pretty bad – water squirting out, a little bloody, a big stretched vagina – but not bad as he pictured. I’m pretty proud of him for that… for watching. I didn’t really think he would, and I wouldn’t have been upset had he chosen to look away. (Though I think a large part of his reason was that there were other people there and he would think he was a sissy if he was the only one averting his eyes. I know how men think!)

After the video we got down on the floor with our blankets and pillows and got into a relaxation pose and did a relaxation technique… tensing one group of muscles at at time, then releasing them and focusing on letting it go completely. This is what we’re supposed to do in late labor, relax our bodies so that our uterus can do its work unimpeded with all of our body’s energy.

So that was the class. 2 hours long. We go back next week for round two!

Did I learn things? Yes, a couple of things. A lot was repeating things that I already knew. I guess I’m just a little worried about the class being worth all the money we paid. This is really important to me and I hope it helps me…. and I really really hate wasting money, especially at a time like this. But I think I’d kick myself more if I hadn’t done the class.

So here’s hoping we learn a ton more as we go along!