Week 37, day 1

Hand swelling is much worse. My fingers feel like little sausages. I am going to drink a ton of water today and limit sodium. I emailed Vickii, and B will take my blood pressure when he gets home. It’s probably just a normal thing, but if it’s a problem, we need to know.

We made dinner plans with friends at our place last night, so (yeah!) Barry helped me clean house (which was tidy but incredibly filthy, I tell you). Actually, he did most of it while I puttered around and answered questions (e.g. How do you clean a bathroom floor? Does this toilet look clean?). Then I made what turned out to be an amazing batch of spaghetti sauce (with turkey italian sausage). Everybody had 2nds and the guys had 3rds, which is always a good feeling.

I slept well except for waking up to shake fluid out of my hands several times. In the morning, Bear opened the door to let in the dog and I woke up to say hi, then slept a bit more having vivid dreams while smelling the coffee brewing. Now I’m up, he’s off hunting, and the day feels alive with possibility. Tomorrow is our last day off. The house feels so clean and nice.  It’s beautiful outside.

Week 36, day 7

Minor annoyance: my arms fall asleep for no reason of late, and then my hands puff up and feel like they’re going to explode. It goes away if I move them around. Weird.

I am actively working on lowering my housekeeping standards. It’s not an easy project. It’s painful for me to look at a grungy toilet or dusty cabinets and not grab the cleaning supplies and go for it, but about halfway to the supply cabinet I sit down and rest for a minute and soon I’m ready for a snack. For the record, B helps, but his standards are already lower than mine, and I only want to ask for so much when I know how intense the next few months are going to be.

Well meaning relatives are offering things we don’t need like diaper service (we’re using disposables, they have the same impact on the environment and are far easier), clothing from catalogs (I have no idea what size I’ll be after this is over and will need to try things on), and largeish furniture (no space, gah!) – what we could really use is a housekeeper or cash.

On the plus side, I have that fresh clean feeling that can only come from paying bills. For the third month in a row we’ve kept to a budget, and it wasn’t really painful at all – just a matter of focus. Depending on how things go, we hope to be able to pay off our home equity line of credit and fully fund the emergency account by the time the monkey goes into daycare (which could be July 2007, September 2007, or January 2008 – dependent on pending decisions by higher ups at work).

Week 36, day 6

We took a walk with the dog yesterday along the ocean in an open area with some hilly portions and some cliff-like formations. While this is not an official off-leash area, everybody does it. In other neighborhoods this would likely net you a fat ticket, but nobody cares in Ocean Beach. OB is a bit like another country in its anarchic tendencies. It won’t last – the tragedy of the commons always seems to rear its ugly head (as evidenced by all of the un-picked-up dog poo along the trail) – but it’s nice for now.

We decided to let Raisy off leash for the first time since her surgery, in part because she doesn’t associate that place with tennis balls, and so wouldn’t be agitating for us to throw one. She really enjoyed running around free for half an hour. It was great to experience her exhuberance at life and just being in a little dog body.

At one point, though, she disappeared down a steep hill and didn’t reemerge when we called for her. Turns out she couldn’t scramble her way back up. Bear had to trek alongside the rim of the hill until he found a more reasonable slope and rescue her that way. Because she’s got more guts than brains, the little beastie. I think the event was a little traumatic/tiring, because she hung out in the 2nd bedroom on her favorite blankie for the rest of the day instead of following us around the house as usual.

I am so loving being on vacation for long enough that I don’t feel pressure to make it count. Yesterday I had one of those naps where I just lay down for a moment and woke up an hour later in a puddle of drool. It was glorious. We’re watching South Park dvd’s a 2nd time and resting and going to the gym and walking the dog and doing things around the house and generally just being. It’s great.

Baby news? Well, he’s in there. It’s hard for me to believe that within a month or so he won’t be. I’m much less uncomfortable now than I have been at other points along the way – things have stabilized as my body gets used to its new shape and hormone levels, I guess. So it’s sort of hard to believe that such a big change is coming. I do have occasional pre-labor contractions to remind me, but not so often as to be difficult.

I’m making a big pot of butternut squash soup. In preparation for which I’m baking 4 squash (squashes?). Which I must go check on now.

Week 36, day 5

We went to the midwife yesterday. Little guy is growing as expected and I’m having no complications. He’s kicking around (or stretching and moving) a LOT. It’s weird because you can really see it now – the outline of a foot, for instance. He’s still facing ROA (right occiput anterior), so we’ll just live with that and know the best outcome.

I like being pregnant, strangely enough given some of the inconveniences. But I sure am excited to meet the little dude. Though I’m also keenly aware that it’s very convenient to carry him around this way. As soon as he’s external, I can’t bring him to work, for instance, and he’ll be noisy. But still, I’m excited.

We stopped off at Wal-Mart on the way back and I made the mistake of saying “sure, we can afford that” when Barry eyed the display of Jackass 2 dvds on sale for $14. I guess I figured that he’d better watch it now while he has time. But Oh. My. God. What a bunch of sick bastards. I should’ve known, as I’ve seen the first dvd. I have as much (or more) of an inner 14-year-old-boy as the next person, but I had to stop watching when they . . . well, I can’t even type it here because my dad reads this blog. Let’s just say that I spend the two hours alternating between saying “omygod ouch!” “ewwwwwww I’m gonna puke!” and “call me when this part’s over.”

Week 36, day 4

I had some frequent flier miles stored up from somewhere – maybe some Southwest flights or something. Anyhow, I got a flier in the mail saying that I could trade them in for magazines. So I did that, since I didn’t have enough miles to go anywhere, and don’t plan to anyhow. Among other things, I got the Wall Street Journal, since Barry enjoys it. So now Barry looks like a real dad, with his coffee and paper in the morning.

Yesterday I spent some time practicing using the baby carrier that a friend gave me. It’s an 18-foot by 18-inch (or so) piece of soft cotton fabric. I was very intimidated by that, but now that I’ve read the instructions and practiced with a stuffed animal, I see that it’s quite easy. It’s also very well balanced, and I think I’ll enjoy going for walks with the baby on my chest. I think that the baby will like it, too, since he’s used to me moving around a lot with him in tow.

Week 36, day 3

We had a most fine Christmas day. First we woke up and ate breakfast and poked around the house a bit, cuddling the dog and reading and such. Then we got in the car and started driving East. We drove all the way to El Centro, just talking about stuff and laughing, and had breakfast again at Denny’s. Yuk, but yum. Then we drove a bit more East and then North to see these bubbling mud holes caused by carbon dioxide coming out of the earth. We were going to hunt for this place called Slab City, which appears to be the world’s biggest and most successful squat, but a friend called and invited us over for Christmas dinner.

So we got back in the car and made our way to the same home where we spent Thanksgiving. It’s a huge family (+ friends) and there was more food than you can shake a stick at. Turkey, ham, duck, two kinds of stuffing, yams, potato variants, gravy, salad, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, rolls, five types of pie, tiramisu . . . and that’s after the cheese and crackers and chocolates and veggies and dip.

There were 20 or so people there of at least five generations, including several gentlemen who had moved to San Diego in the 1930’s (when this was a town of under 100,000 people, imagine that). One of the men joked that he used to have a struggling ranch in El Cajon, but then he stopped growing steer and started growing apartment buildings, and now he’s a millionaire.

Walker was in fine form all day, kicking and squirming. My friend Deborah got to feel him move, which made her smile. When we came home, we took the dog for her walk, and I took two Gas-ex and slept for 9 1/2 hours. A very good day indeed.

Week 36, day 2

Merry Christmas! It’s another beautiful day, and I think we’ll go for a drive. There’s no better time to explore than when everybody else is tucked away indoors. Who knows what we’ll discover!

Week 36, day 1

Wow, today marks the beginning of my last scheduled month of pregnancy.

It’s a beautiful day. Sunny, crisp, warm in the sun and cool in the shade. The sunlight is streaming in the window and the dog is basking in it. We went to the gym early this morning (I did chest, shoulders, and triceps) and then took the pibble (that’s cute-speak for pit bull) for a 40-minute walk. I just had a filling lunch (homemade chili, tortilla chips with fresh salsa) and now I’m seriously considering napping with the dog.

I love vacation.

Yesterday we bought a high quality but not too huge and heavy gun safe on sale. Barry’s off picking up a friend with a dolly so that they can get it upstairs to our bedroom. We also bought two of those plastic sets of drawers at Target. I couldn’t decide on a permanent solution, and this cost $30 and fits in an unused corner, so that works out for now. We washed all of the 0-6 month clothes and put them in drawers and said “ooooh” and “ahhhh” and “how adorable.” I feel good about that.

Nap time.

Week 35, day 7

If I’m going to be a mother, I shall have to improve at this Christmas thing. As it is, I find the holiday season to be melancholy at best. I loved it as a kid. I used to stay up all night Christmas eve with a flashlight reading because I was too excited to sleep.

But at some point my whole family sort of stopped wanting to interact and holidays got to be a sad time. I remember one year when I was in college, going to my parents house for Christmas dinner. My grandmother, who was on the downswing of Alzheimer’s, was there, and everybody was eating as fast as they could so as to take her home and get back to their books.

We do have some traditions that make me happy. We always pick out a gift for Toys for Tots. We go to see the decorated lobby of the Hotel del Coronado. We give the dog a gift. And we buy the most recently released seasons of South Park.

So now we’ll pick up some traditions that are appropriate for a tiny boy and I think that seeing the season through innocent eyes will make me smile. We’ll do more nice things for the people we care about. We’ll make cookies and send off cards. We may even go see Santa at the mall.

Week 35, day 6

I’m at the reference desk. It’s my last day before vacation and the place is a ghost town. It’s cool, sort of like the last week before summer break when you’re a kid.

I feel much better about getting the house ready for baby. The reason being that Barry and I had Big Big Plans to do stuff like re-do the whole wall of a bedroom with Ikea wardrobes and such. It was an expensive proposition, though not overwhelmingly so. But more important, it required a lot of work and thought about how we want our house to be laid out for the next several years.

I was getting all tense about it. Then this morning Barry said “you know, we could just buy a couple more tall bookshelves and an inexpensive kiddie dresser.” Ahhh, much better. So, this week we will do that. Then I get to wash all the baby outfits and lay them in the little dresser and see what else we need to buy. Whee!

Note: I may not update daily between now and Jan 1, as I’ll be doing things other than sitting in front of a computer. On the other hand, maybe I will.