On again, off again

I had my appointment with the midwife yesterday. I've been feeling pretty good lately with no big complaints, but I had noticed over the last few days that my legs are a lot more swollen and my hands are a little puffy too. Last week they commented that my blood pressure was a little up. Certainly not in a range that would be high blood pressure to anyone else, but I am a Lee girl. So this week not only was my BP still up (118/75) but I also managed to gain 5lbs in a week. Hmm.. not too good. I'm sure that it is all fluid, but it's still alarming considering I haven't gained anything in the last 4 weeks and I figured that maybe I was done getting heavier. We're just keeping an eye on everything for now, but she did nix my new walking program and took me back to working half days. I feel at this point like I'm the on again, off again resident and it's getting hard. I know that taking time off has been the right thing to do for me each time I've done it, but I've only managed to work 6 weeks since the beginning of the year! I think that baby just needs to come so I don't feeling like a slacker sitting at home feeling perfectly fine.

I also tried to post pictures of the nursery yesterday, but the computer wouldn't have it, so here they are today.

38 weeks

Not much news to report from here. We're still waiting for baby and I'm starting to get the feeling like this could be awhile. Being back at work has taken my mind off things a bit, but I'm still finding it really hard to get much done. My new rotation is in the international adoption clinic. It's a great rotation and not just because it's not too taxing and the hours are excellent. I spend most days reviewing documents from children that families are interested in adopting and trying to get an idea about the health of the child and the risk of medical, developmental and psychological problems if the child were adopted. It's a lot like putting together a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces, but I really enjoy it. We also spend time in the clinic seeing the kids after they arrive here. We work with psychologists, occupational, speech and physical therapy. All in all it's a lot of fun, but I'm still wishing for baby.

The weather around here took a turn for the better last weekend. After our snow on Friday, things really got a lot nicer and I've been able to walk to and from work every day. I'm sure that this is great for my health, but I'm not sure that it's been very effective in getting the baby to drop. I'm still getting kicked up by my ribs. It also makes me really tired and Matt's been tucking me into bed most nights by 8:30. What a life.

It was so nice yesterday that Matt took both dogs to the small dog park near the house. He said that they'd laid down new bark chips around and the boys had tons of fun playing fetch. Oscar, however, is not used to the warm yet and found the one and only mud puddle in the park in which to cool off. Matt said the puddle was at least a foot deep of thick mud. Oscar and Duncan both decided that it would be great to submerge their entire bodies in the mud. Needless to say they got their first baths of the season when they got home.

I'm off to the midwife today for another check up. Last week the midwife told me that we might be having a May baby after all because the baby and I don't seem to be making much progress towards labor. I'm hoping that maybe this week she'll change her tune again. I know that she can't really predict any of these things, but I look forward to hearing them anyway. Silly me. Luckily I'm still feeling really good and my peds preceptor told me that I didn't look nearly awful and uncomfortable enough for the baby to be coming any time soon. Here's a picture of me from today at 38 +2. It's amazing to think about just how big baby is getting.

We're also pretty much done with the nursery. There are still a few things that need to be hung on the walls, but otherwise I think that we're set. We even got the diapers delivered last week and Matt has the car seat base installed in the civic. I'm hoping that my frantic nesting period is over and I don't have to move on to scrubbing the windows and reorganizing the cupboards.

Matt's nesting has taken place in the yard. As soon as the weather warmed up, Matt was outside waging war against the rabbits. Apparently the last few mild winters have left us with tons of rabbits and they enjoyed eating the bark off of our plum tree and munching on our blueberries all winter. The blueberries should rebound, but I'm afraid that the plum tree may not. Matt has been working what he calls "the bunker" in the backyard to protect the blueberries and the veggie beds. Luckily it is not quite as obtrusive as the name suggests and it will keep Matt from taking up rabbit hunting.

37 Weeks

As we keep waiting patiently for the real start of spring, baby preparations have really picked up. We've got the nursery pretty well put together now. Baby clothes are washed, hospital bags (almost) packed.

Shirley, Katie, and Laura threw Fran a baby shower last week. They had a great time, and we received many generous gifts. The most unexpected gift came from Katie and Jon-- looks like our baby will be heading to med school after all!

On a more somber note, I turned 30 years old last week. I still maintain your thirties don't start until age 31. In any case, I'll be in good company when Fran hits that milestone in mid-May. Fran got me a small camcorder for my birthday, we're looking forward to many happy memories recorded with our baby. As baby gets older, maybe we'll even capture a classic like "football in the groin", a father could only be so lucky.

Fran is 37 weeks today and is doing great. She is really a champ and I'm very proud of her. Checkups have been only good news. Baby has been really active lately. The big unknown for us now is when we'll get to meet her (and finally pick a name)!

Rough few weeks

It's been a long road to recovery, but I've finally managed to shake the funk that Matt gave me. I've still got a cough and some pulled muscles to remind me of the joy of being sick, but all in all things are much better. I'm hoping that this was my last illness of pregnancy and things will be smooth sailing from here on out. It helps that Matt is now on Rheumatology and not seeing patients who are infectious and that I'm at home for another week.

We spent last weekend involved in wedding events with Nick and Paula. We had the rehearsal and dinner on Friday night, the wedding on Saturday and a brunch on Sunday. It was tons of fun, but by yesterday we were both pooped. We had so much fun at the wedding that we barely managed to take any pictures. I'll include the ones that we did get, although none of them were that great. Nick and Paula managed to leave town this morning for their honeymoon in California just in time to miss our current snow storm. They've predicted about 6-10 inches today. This is just so much fun!

I have the baby shower thrown by Laura P. and Shirley and Katie N this evening. Our first attempt was thwarted after I got sick, but nothing is getting to get in out way today, not even the snow. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and celebrating being a little bit closer to the baby's big arrival.

Speaking of the big arrival. I'll be 36 weeks tomorrow and I'm now seeing the midwife every week. The appointments are still pretty short and routine. We did start talking more seriously about a birth plan. We've agreed for me to labor at home as long as reasonable and then talked about using things like a walking, a tub etc to help with comfort. We've agreed not to induce without a really good reason before 42 weeks and to try to go intervention free with the whole event. I'm feeling really good about our goals and we will just have to see how things go. My midwife told me at my last appointment that based on the fact that I've started to dilate and efface and that I'm still having lots of contractions that she didn't think that I'd go past my due date. She also guessed that this would be a nice average sized baby. I'm pretty sure that these predictions must be made to keep me happy and optimistic, but it certainly works. We will just have to wait and see how accurate she is.

The great name debate continues, although we haven't really made make any progress since we came up with a few more middle names we liked about two months ago. In fact, the conversations are really short; they begin with us each stating our favorite name and then end with me saying that we will probably have to wait and see her before deciding. I'm not sure exactly how we will decide on a name, but I'm confident that she will not enter kindergarten without one. If worst comes to worst we will award Jan P the naming rights that she won playing boggle and she tells us she likes the name "Tilapia Bezor." I suggested that perhaps Bezora is a little more feminine. Just like the rest of this process, we will just have to wait and see.

Typhoid Mary

Don't worry, that's not the name we chose for the baby! It's a nickname I won after infecting Frances with a nasty winter cold bug. I quarantined myself at the parents house for a couple days after getting sick, but Fran still has come down with the black death. She's just past 34 weeks, and besides this bump in the road is doing great.

We finally shared this blog with Fran's family-- hope you enjoy it. I've been itching to try out the Baby Bjorn that JJ sent along for us. Who's enjoying that more, me or Duncan?

In other happenings this week, Oscar decided that leather belts were so 2006... after discovering an open cupboard with a family-size tub of hot cocoa. Fran tells me Duncan didn't mind helping with the cleanup.

It's snowing again

It's a BOB!

My latest sewing project

It's Monday and Matt's got the plague. Ok, maybe not the plague, but probably the flu. He got home from his shift yesterday looking and feeling terrible. We decided that we didn't want me to get whatever he had, so we quarantined him in Jan and Dean's basement. Oh boy I'm glad that we did. He no sounds like death and is so miserable he can't even sleep. Hopefully we can get him some tamiflu and get him back on his feet before anyone else gets this.

I decided that posts without pictures weren't that exciting, so I took some pictures of the stroller and the quilt that I'm working on . I started this quilt for BP last spring before I was even pregnant and I figure that it's probably time to finish it up. I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. The back and border will be the navy material in the middle. Now I'm just trying to figure out what color thread to quilt with. Ideas?

I also wanted to post the first quilt picture so that people could notice the snow. Guess what, that's brand new snow. This is just the winter that will not end. At this rate I may need the snow suit from Rach to bring this kiddo home.

Week 33

I know that Matt's comment about my logging abilities should have encouraged me to do better, but he's actually right so my true nature took over.

It started off as an eventful week. As many of you know, Matt and I got to take a trip to Abbott to be evaluated for preterm labor. What fun. Everything looked good and has settled down, but the midwife we saw nixed my current rotation. In fact she said "no call, no hospital, no clinic until 36 weeks." She did say that I could sit and work at a computer all day. I'm still looking for what rotation that would be. So, I've been home since Monday. I'm not officially on bedrest, but I'm supposed to be taking it easy.

Being home has brought out an intense need to nest. I'm trying to resist as much as possible because there really is no rational reason that the carseat needs to be installed, diapers bought and all the baby clothes washed today. We did go and buy a stoller this week which was exciting. We got a BOB revolution. We're hoping that this will function as our one and only stroller.

I'm hoping that week 34 will be a little less exciting in some ways and that I come up with some more ways to occupy my time. We'll see...