39 weeks!

7 days until the due date!! Sea Monkey will be here soon! I can't wait. (Well, I can. But... you know.)

Sea Monkey: is estimated to be around 20 inches and a little over 7 pounds (which, by the way, is the weight of a mini watermelon). S/he's still building up a layer of fat to regulate his/her temperature on the outside, but aside from that, s/he's ready to meet the world (or should be).

heidi: is ready to be done. The aches and pains are kind of getting overwhelming. I woke up whimpering because of how badly my hips and back were hurting. It was pathetic and I felt like a dork when I realized that the noise that woke me up was me whining. But not much longer! I have to keep reminding myself of that. We are almost done!

Aside from the aches things are going well. I'm definitely having a harder time walking. It gets painful more quickly than it used to. I went on a walk yesterday and had gone a little less than half a mile before I felt like my back was about to shatter into a million pieces of pain. Then I had to walk about a half mile back home with an aching back. That was pleasant.

I didn't really update on this week's appointment since there wasn't much to say. Things are still excellent, both for me and for Sea Monkey. Val was feeling my uterus to check the baby's position and said Sea Monkey no longer had his/her butt shoved up under the right side of my ribs. Last week, when she measured the fundal height, she had commented on how the measurement was off because of Sea Monkey's tush sticking out like it was. At our appointment this time, though, my belly "shrank" because Sea Monkey dropped out of my ribs a bit. It doesn't look to me like my belly is lower or anything, but I've certainly noticed an increase in back pain.

We have the office cleaned out and all the birth supplies are ready to go in there; all we need now is for me to go into labor so we can put down the stuff to protect the floor and set up the pool! I keep peeking in there because I'm excited that there's so much empty space there now and I just can't wait to fill up that space with a pool and have a baby. =)

Non-baby related stuff: I am quickly approaching the point of getting everything that we won't need before we move packed (or it feels like I'm getting close, anyway). One of the reasons I'm hoping Sea Monkey comes soon is because I'm just getting so bored. There's not much left to pack right now, I have nothing left to do to prepare for baby, so I'm just waiting. I'm too excited to be able to concentrate on studying and researching things like I normally do, and I'm too tired and achy to gather the motivation to clean (I'm not sure why I feel ok to pack but not to clean....). So I'm just bored. And it's making time drag by. It'd be much easier to wait if I had something to occupy myself with, but... I don't. What to do, what to do. I can only watch reruns of The Office and 30 Rock so much (but.. I only watch shows while I'm cleaning or working on something, so that doesn't do anything for me either, since I'm running out of things to do).

I have recently come to the conclusion that I am absolutely ecstatic, beyond all sane amounts of belief, for baby snuggles. Oh my goodness. I just want to sit and hold my baby all day long and just stare at him/her. I can't wait. =)

Belly picture:

Not much longer.....

Well, that was misleading.

False labor = highly depressing.

Here's what happened yesterday.

Around 1 PM, my back started hurting. It was a bit different than the other pregnancy back pains, I'd had, but at first I attributed it to needing to visit the chiropractor (because I really, really need to go get everything aligned). It was kind of just a constant pain, but around 2 or 3, it started coming in waves of pain. I started timing it, wondering if it was back labor, or labor starting or if I was just going crazy. I went to pick up Zach from work at 4 and we called Val to let her know what was going on and see what she thought. Basically she told us to keep an eye on things, keep timing the contractions, etc. Around 6, the contractions were about 4 minutes apart, lasting 40 seconds, so we let Val know. Around 7, Val stopped by to see how we were doing and to check on Sea Monkey and I. She said it was definitely possible that it was early labor, but we'd just have to wait and see. She headed out again, since if it was labor, it was probably going to be a while. I kept walking around, munching on grapes and drinking my red raspberry leaf tea and watching 24 on Netflix with Zach. After a few hours, things started slowing down. At 11, Zach and I decided to go to bed, since we were both really tired, and if it was going to be labor, we could use the sleep. So we went to sleep and I kept having sporadic contractions until 4 AM or so. I only noticed them when I woke up to go to the bathroom, and after the 4 AM bathroom break, they seemed to completely disappear. We woke up around 8:30, and there was absolutely nothing going on. Then I was very, very sad, because I had really been thinking we were finally going to get to meet Sea Monkey.

And that's what happened. Sea Monkey's been extra active today, s/he's almost bouncing, and it's almost like s/he's laughing at us because s/he managed to trick us. Little bugger. We'll show you, Sea Monkey. You WILL come out. And then you won't be able to hide from us! ...er.... until you're mobile.

Yesterday's belly pic:

38 Weeks

Sea Monkey: weighs around 6.8 pounds, may be around 19 1/2 inches long. His/her organs should be fully matured, and s/he should be ready for life outside now. S/he enjoys practice breathing, practice fist-making, and shoving his/her butt into my ribs. And squishing my organs. Squish, squish.

heidi: is not a happy camper right now. My hip hurts. I've  had a mild headache off and on the past few days (I think it's mostly due to my supreme need to visit the chiropractor). My lower back has started hurting. I'm whiny. 

Practice labor is annoying. Just so you know. I'm getting practice contractions about every 1 1/2 - 2 hours. And the only reason they're practice contractions is because they're contractions, but there's no baby out here yet. Come on, Sea Monkey. Be ready!!

Heartburn is still no fun. I don't know if I was expecting it to suddenly become a walk in the park, but... it's still ridiculous.

I'm very jealous of Zach right now, because he gets to sleep at night, and oh my goodness, why can't I?? I could handle the 1 1/2 hour increments of sleep if I were at least comfortable during them.. but I'm not. I'm very uncomfortable. And don't tell me that the lack of sleep is getting me ready for the baby, because if you do, I will be forced to poke you incessantly with a pointy stick. Don't mess with me. I have a pointy stick. I'll use it.

I'm getting so anxious. I keep alternating between being absolutely BEYOND ready for Sea Monkey to show up to being absolutely freaked out that in a very short amount of time, I'm going to have a tiny little person to take care of and keep alive and stuff. What??

It's kind of exciting/discouraging to look at the birth announcements on the September birth board on Babycenter right now. Lots and lots of women due in the early days of September are having babies. I'm due in early September. But I have had no baby. Jerks.

Belly picture coming later. It'll be up at a reasonable time, this time. =)

37 Weeks

Full! Term!  *insert girly squeal*

We are now officially in the "baby can come at any time" phase. And part of me really wants Sea Monkey to come right now (um... now! ...... now. ......now?). I'm soooo tired of being uncomfortable and unable to do things like sit up or roll over or bend down to attack my cat. The other part of me is content (er, sort of) to wait for Sea Monkey to come. S/he'll come when ready, and I don't want to rush it. Well, I do, sort of. But I won't.

Part of me thinks this baby is going to be here soon (as in within the next two weeks). But I think that feeling is mostly because Zach and I have been talking about it and saying "holy crap, we could have a baby today... or tomorrow. Or next week!" I've thought about making a calendar to count down the last few weeks so I could mark those days off just for that satisfaction of marking things off, but I think that'd either completely freak me out about just how little time is left or it'd make time pass incredibly slowly. So... I haven't done anything.

Sea Monkey: is weighing in around 6 1/3 pounds, and may be around 19 inches long.

heidi: is achy. Oh so achy. My goodness. I had not realized just how much my back could hurt. Wow.

My period-like cramps/contractions/whatever are increasing. Two weeks ago, I was having about 1 a day. This past Tuesday, it was around 4 per day. Now it's 8-9 a day. So... something's happening. Or getting ready to happen. Awesome sauce.

In other news, we've pretty much found where we're going to live. As long as our application is accepted/we pass our background check, that's where we're going. The co-owner or somebody (he was important, but I don't remember what his position was) said Mali would be fine; they're mostly concerned about having dogs there. I'm really excited to move! New place, new baby... it'll be fun. =) We just need to pack.... oof.

Belly picture:

I had been thinking earlier in the week that the baby had dropped a little, but I think it was just the way s/he was positioned that day. My belly doesn't really look any lower to me anymore. But what do I know? =)

A few pictures and an appointment update

I am apparently a very lazy blogger. I took my 36 week belly shot on Saturday, and it's Tuesday and I still haven't put it up. Ah, well. Better late than never, no?

36 week belly shot:

A few other pictures:

Mali exploring the co-sleeper's storage compartment

Co-sleeper, all set up next to the bed.

Sea Monkey's changing table/dresser, minus changing table pad thing (the white pieces of paper are labels of what's in the drawer... because I'm ridiculous and MUST. BE. ORGANIZED.) :

The quick access diaper changing things, and Sleepy Wrap, because I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it...The beige things in the middle are the prefolds for the diapers. The blue, yellow, and green things are the cloth wipes. I still need to make the wipes solution.

Birth Box A (Birth Box B is downstairs already; it has the pool, hose, and pumps; this one has the thermometer, gatorade, liners and absorbent pads to protect the floors, and a few other things), Sea Monkey's diaper bag, and my emergency hospital bag:

Appointment details.... things are good (are you surprised?). No protein in urine, blood pressure is good, Sea Monkey's heartbeat was right on at 140. S/he is definitely head down, and has his/her back on the right side of my belly and feet and butt pushed up right under my ribs. This is not comfortable.

Val said she has good vibes about me. =) She's excited about the mild contractions I'm having- the period like cramps I'm getting a few times a day.

That's pretty much it, appointment-wise. We start weekly appointments now, so the next appointment is Tuesday! =)

36 weeks

Sea Monkey: 6 pounds! Six whole pounds of cute little baby! *melty cute happiness* Babycenter says that at the end of this week, I'll be at term and the baby could come at any time.

Um.... whoah.

That doesn't mean too much, though, because Sea Monkey could come at any point between next Friday (August 13th) and September 17th. That's the 37-42 week span that most babies are born in. So.... congratulations, your baby is coming sometime. Just in case you didn't realize that before.

heidi: is sleepy and grumpy. Look out. If you breathe, I might just destroy you. Unless you bring me something tasty to eat, then you might be ok for about 10 minutes. But after that... I make no guarantees. I'm pretty much breathing fire these days (that's the heartburn's fault).

But, good news, we have just about everything we need for Sea Monkey now! We need one more thing, and there's a couple things I'd like, but we've got almost everything (some of it is still on its way here). Now I just need to organize some things and keep them organized... I don't know how it happens, but I'll get the changing table cleared off and organized and then suddenly it's covered in things again. It's ridiculous.

The co-sleeper came last week! Zach set it up, attached it to the bed, and Mali played in the little storage part of it below the bassinet. Then I put clean sheets in there and zippered it up and she glared at me. Now she sleeps right next to it. It's cute. She's only tried to get into the part where the baby will sleep once, and I poked her out of it, and she hasn't tried again. We did discover, though, that we need to do something about the co-sleeper- it's about 3 inches higher than the bed, so it doesn't attach properly. If there's not a function on the co-sleeper to lower the bassinet, we need to get a bed frame... or have it set up as a free-standing bassinet, but that kind of defeats the purpose of it being a co-sleeper (although it's a useful function).

All of our diapers are washed and prepped, and all of Sea Monkey's clothes are washed, put away and just waiting to be worn, ogled over, and pooped on. I'm Mrs. Obsessive List Maker Lady (in case you didn't know) and spent time labeling every drawer with what should be in it and made about a dozen lists this week. The labels on the drawers will be useful, though, because if Zach or one of the grandmothers who will be visiting after Sea Monkey arrives needs to get a new outfit or diaper or something and I'm not available for whatever reason, they won't have to search. And I wrote down exactly how to use our diapers and how to wash them and hung up the paper right over the changing table. And I made a list of what we need to do when we realize I'm in labor (basically get the pool and stuff set up downstairs and shut Mali in the office [she can't be around while I'm laboring] with her food, water, litterbox, and a few toys. And something comfy to snuggle on, because my goodness, I dote on my cat and feel terrible that she's going to be shut in a room for hours).

Speaking of labor, apparently I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for the past few weeks and just hadn't even realized it. It was one of those "....oh.... right.... well, I feel like a moron" moments. I mentioned it to Val at our last appointment and she was excited for me, and mentioned that my body's getting ready to have a baby.

Oh! We set up the birthing pool last night to make sure that it didn't have any leaks and that the hoses and pumps and things would work fine. Everything works, technically, but the pump to get the water out of it is slooooooooooow..... so we're exchanging that... Zach ended up taking advantage of the fact that our house is on a slight incline and made the hose into a siphon. It went waaaay faster siphoning the water out than using the pump. Stupid $6 pump. 

We've also started looking at apartments. We viewed a place yesterday, which was just ok, and we have an appointment to view another place on Saturday. Richard and Karen saw the ones we're seeing Saturday earlier and really like them, and they sound like they're a good option. Hopefully they'll work out. They have an interesting pet policy, though; they don't just say "yes, please bring your cute little kitties here!", they say "we need to talk to you first and then we'll decide if your kitty is cute enough to live here." So we have that Saturday.

Since we're moving in October-ish, I've decided to get a head start on things to make life easier on me after I have a baby and start packing up things we don't need. Like our books in the office. I really don't think we'll have need for any of Soren Kierkegaard's works between now and moving time. But you never know. Maybe Sea Monkey will come out clamoring to know about existentialism (...that would be terrifying).

Also, packing sucks. It's so hot upstairs and it wears me out to try and pack things up and ends up taking a very long time. But it'll be good to have the office packed away, because it's the room where all the random things we think we need to keep go. Once it's done, I'll be at least 1/3 of the way done packing. Which is exciting. Even though we'll have until sometime in October before we move. It'll be good.

So. It's almost time to meet Sea Monkey. Can you believe it??

Belly picture will be coming tomorrow, because I forgot to take a picture... whoops.