Nursery, 7/30

Spinning the baby

I saw my favorite midwife last week, and she assured me that it is *way* too early to freak about about fetal position. The idea has been manifesting itself in the form of "if only I started sitting the right way months ago I'd know for sure that baby won't be breech, or if she is, it won't be my fault." She said I'd been getting bad information, that we won't start even worrying about it until week 35 or 36, and that there'd be plenty of time to intervene if it turns out then that the baby hasn't flipped.

She explained that a growth spurt in the next few weeks will make the baby's head bigger and heavier, which will allow gravity to make head-down a more natural position for her. She also felt around and confirmed that the baby was head-down when I was at my appointment, and had me feel for myself. The baby's head felt like a lemon.

Been having fun painting the baby's room, looking forward to finishing the job so I can continue putting together furniture. Re: $80 IKEA crib, you get what you pay for - I had to sand and/or re-drill about half the pieces to get it to fit together right, but it's done and sturdy and fine.

Nursery, 7/24

Week 30: viable, still feeling normal

Little one and I are doing well, though I am definitely experiencing more aches and pains than I was a month ago. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome reared its ugly head last week, and was particularly excruciating when I was camping in high altitude (7000 feet). I got some wrist braces to wear at night, and the problem has almost completely gone away. Rib pain is still there but I'm used to it, or maybe ignoring it - it's not slowing me down so much. Shortness of breath has gone away except camping at 7000 feet, and walking up the steep hills around my neighborhood.

My husband and I attended an excellent hypnobirthing class this weekend, which did a lot to normalize the process of labor and childbirth, as well as teach some particular relaxation techniques (breathing, massage, and guided visualization). My husband was nervous about the workshop beforehand; I think he had a stereotypical vision of hypnosis in his head, and imagined himself dangling a pocketwatch in front of my face and trying to put me in a stupor of some kind. He was pleasantly surprised.

The only negative thing about the workshop was that it got me worried all over again about fetal position - my midwives say they don't even start thinking about fetal position until week 32 or so, but my one fear about what could go wrong is that this baby won't get the message that she is supposed to end up head-down, spine forward. Am trying to focus on things I can do to help without dwelling on guilt about things I haven't done so far. Leaning forward, or even just vertical, is really painful on my shoulders and back. May look up my old chiropractor.

Have made very good progress cleaning out the baby room, hoping to prime and paint tomorrow. Getting tired of hauling boxes around, but glad to be forced to purge old files, letters, etc. Still feel physically normal most of the time, forget I'm pregnant. Climbing, I've had to cut out overhangs (muscles haven't kept up with weight gain) and I get tired faster, but my body is basically continuing to do everything it's supposed to do.

Nursery, 7/16

OK, I cheated a bit and took this photo Monday evening, since I knew I'd be selling the desk later in the day. But, progress, eh? Hope to paint later this week.

Experiencing from the outside

I've been thinking this week, as I've been feeling more kicks and rolls in my belly, about the fact that my husband doesn't get the same sort of experience I get. He's felt a few kicks, but he doesn't have the same sense of intimacy I have with the pregnancy. I know when baby is awake, when she's moving around, that she wakes up after food and that she seems to really like cake. Someone asked me recently whether I think the baby feels sad when I am watching a sad movie. It's trippy to think about - finally I have arrived at that point of feeling the symbiosis of having another little being sharing all my experiences (and cake).

I was at a party this weekend where I learned that some friends, a male same-sex couple, were going to have a baby via an egg donor and a surrogate mother. I was thinking about how strange that must be, to create a baby and experience the pregnancy totally remotely. They will be in touch with the surrogate mom (who lives halfway across the country) all along, but they, like my husband, will be experiencing the pregnancy from a distance. It made me want to share everything I could with them about what I was going through, some effort to give them what they may be missing once their own pregnancy is rolling along. And with babies only nine months apart, certainly I want to stay in touch so we can trade off on babysitting!

Aches and Pains

A few years ago, I was trying to tackle a sleep problem with my doctor. She asked if I could possibly have restless legs syndrome. "Not a chance," I said. "My cat sleeps on my feet - there's no way she'd stay there if I kept disrupting her." The doctor frowned. "Hmm," she said, "I can't write 'patient has no symptoms of RLS per patient's cat' in your chart."

I should have known something was up when the cat started sleeping on my husband's side of the bed. Almost like clockwork, I hit third trimester and started unraveling a bit. I have a rib being pulled out of place which makes it hurt to take a deep breath after about 2 in the afternoon. My solution, until a few days ago, was to lie down more, but now I have restless legs syndrome, which could be caused by lack of circulation. (It means that my feet get a prickly numb feeling a minute or two after I get settled in one position in bed, so I end up rolling around every minute or two and not getting any sleep.)

So far, I've been getting about five hours of sleep a night instead of eight, and I've gotten downright surly at times. Midwife recommended Tylenol for the rib pain, and I'm going to try the treadmill in the evening to see if that helps me settle down for the night.

Nursery, 7/9

Sold the computer yesterday. Getting there slowly but surely. Haven't tackled all the crafts supplies yet - the next big hurdle. And still haven't decided what color to paint the room, once it's empty..

The Crib Fiasco

Last month sometime, I saw a crib (Diktad) at IKEA, and, after consulting Baby Bargains to ease my guilt about getting an inexpensive crib, I borrowed my mother-in-law's station wagon and returned to IKEA to buy it. Husband helped me bring it in, and we left it in the box since there is no room to set it up yet. My one concern about the crib is that the floor model in the store had the mattress set to a very low setting, and I couldn't tell from pre-drilled holes whether there was a middle setting to make it easier on our backs, hauling baby in and out.

Less than three weeks later I was at IKEA again, and they had a new crib (Leksvik) that I liked better, and that was set up with the mattress level in the middle rather than at the bottom. Since I had to borrow a big car to get a dresser anyway, I decided to return the crib I got and get the new model.

Three days later, my husband and I were there, with borrowed station wagon, and returned the Diktad crib. We went upstairs to get the new crib, and it was gone! The saleswoman I spoke with told me that they sold out completely a few days ago, and they wouldn't be restocking until NOVEMBER. The two other IKEA locations, each a few hours away, were sold out.

So, with visions of my infant daughter sleeping in a cardboard box for the first two months of her life, I went back to returns to track down the crib I had just returned. I found out where it was located, and told my husband (who agreed to do the heavy lifting). I waited at the car.

Turns out, when he got there, he got help loading the crib from a guy who had mentioned that the crib was about to be moved to the "as-is" department, since it was the only crib of that model in the store. Smart hubby mentioned this to the cashier, and managed to swing a deal where we bought back the crib we had just returned, for 50% off. I will remember this as an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" lesson, although getting $80 back for our troubles wasn't a bad deal.

Nursery, 7/2

Doesn't look like much of a change - I have been away most of the week - but there was a filing cabinet in the corner that has been moved out, and the printer has found its new home in the back bedroom...