Contractions again

They've been happening for the last couple of hours, still far apart and erratic, but more intense this time. Also combined with an intense urge to do the laundry, pack the hospital bag, finish my baby sewing projects and wash the dishes. Plus maybe cook dinner and some meals to freeze just in case. Would that the be nesting urge and burst of energy they talk about happening? Ha. Still think it may be another false alarm, so I'm not calling the midwife yet.
Laundry is in and bag is half packed and dishes are next. We'll see how far I get!

False Labor

I had my first little bout of false labor last night. Really mild contractions, about 15 - 20 seconds long and pretty irregularly timed. I did keep me up most of the night, but not from pain, more from curiosity and a bit of anxiety. I took a bath at 3am, and finally slept about 4am I think. They were gone by the time I woke up this morning. No other signs of things happening though, so I guess it was just a little warm up. Makes me happy to know SOMETHING is going on in there! We have our weekly midwife appointment today at 4pm, so if I get any news from her I'll keep you guys updated.

Hurry Up Bloob

Oh my god, I'm ready for this baby to come out. I know we still have the possibility of 3 or 4 weeks to go, but I'd happily settle for anytime next week. The Bloob just keeps dropping lower, which is good, but means that I have lots of pressure on my cervix, and also on my rectum, which gives this awkward sensation of kind of having to poop all the time, even though I don't. The things no one tells you!

We had 49 straight days of rain here, which has been making everyone crazy. It's been a tough spring. Today is our first day of sun in a month and a half! I got up this morning so excited about it, I grabbed the camera and took a picture of outside.

Then I made biscuits and gravy and veggie sausage for breakfast, in the sunlight! I love making biscuits, and I was thinking about getting to teach the Bloob to make them someday.

They were delicious, as usual, and Josh thoroughly enjoyed them, and ate too much, and then complained again about how he is getting fat. I told him that I am also fat (190 lbs, what?!?!) and that he can just shut up about it. I mean seriously, look at those scrawny shoulders.

We have spent a nice weekend at home getting stuff done, mostly basement related. The floor is DONE, except for several coats of polyurethane, which Josh will do during the evenings this week. The coats have to dry for 24 hours between each one, so that will work out fine. He also hung all of the light fixtures this morning, which helps it all look a little more finished. Choosing light fixtures was actually surprisingly difficult. At this point we couldn't really afford to buy the ones we want, and the cheap ones are really pretty unattractive, or just not our style. So, we splurged on one from Ikea for the front bedroom, and the rest are just cheaper, boring ones.

I bought myself a used Boppy nursing pillow at a resale thing the other day, and I made a new cover for it a few days ago. The cover that came with it was actually in good shape, but it had police cars and fire trucks all over it. I think I'm being snobby, but I can't understand why something made for ME to use has to have a dumb kid's print on it. I don't want to look at police cars every time I nurse the baby. So I made a more stylish one. I still need to put velcro on the back closure, but I'm happy with how it came out! I made it with different fabrics on each side.

We moved Richard's food back to the old spot, now that the basement dust has died down. I can't wait for the litter box to go back downstairs too. Even though I know he knows where the food is, because he ate it all last night while we were asleep, he was very adamant this morning that he didn't know where it was. It's a small brain in that little head. This was him telling me that he was upset about the situation.

I also promised a belly picture, so here it is. I feel very frumpy, and have started only wearing yoga pants around the house, but nothing else is comfortable at this point. Also, I cut my head off again sorry. I'm going to try to head outside into the sun and do some weeding in the yard now. Yay!

hooray for progress!

I feel like I missed a whole stage of the basement, as far as photos go, but you can imagine how it looked I guess. Sheetrock was hung. Wiring was done. We borrowed my friend Jared's paint sprayer and Josh was able to paint the entire space in less than 2 days, including the ceiling, which was such a time saver! Last night Josh started on the floor, while I had a friend over (a much needed distraction, for me!) and when my friend left, I went down and helped him. We got so much done so fast, and we LOVE it. The cork is so warm and it's also kind of soft, which dampens the sound and makes it so cozy down there. We're now considering just moving into the basement and renting out the top of the house. Renting to someone who will let us use the bathroom and cook for us, of course. Installing the floor is a lot easier than I think either of us were expecting, which is also a big relief. I think we got about halfway done last night, and we were in bed by 11pm.
These first two are from the bottom of the stairs. There will be french doors in that doorway between these two rooms, but that's coming after the floor. We also have yet to put the light fixtures in, so it's just a bunch of temporary bare bulbs right now.

Stella isn't allowed to walk on the cork yet - it has to get sealed with polyurethane first. Her nails are too sharp and will scratch it, so she holds down the fort at the bottom of the stairs. The stairs will get new carpet at some point.

This section of wall turned out to be my favorite part of the basement project. The stairs come down to the doorway on the end at the right, for reference. There were a bunch of low hanging pipes, and pipes on the wall here that Josh had to frame around, and I like the detail it added once it was all sheet-rocked. We couldn't find a window that was the right size for the cut out there without ordering an expensive custom one, so Josh went to the rebuilding center and bought half of a pane of a full size window and framed it in. It can't open, but with the other big windows down there now, I don't think it matters.

This is just a shot of Josh's butt hanging out of his pants.

A close up of the cork. I'm glad we chose the planks, and not the squares.

This is the hallway leading to the (unfinished) bathroom, and the back bedroom (Josh's art room). The bathroom is the door on the left. We are looking forward to finishing the bathroom in a more leisurely manner after the baby comes. The hallway and back bedroom floor are tonight's project.

19 days to go

Josh came home early yesterday and we headed to our appointment. We were both pretty grumpy, me because of a poor night of sleep and general discomfort, and Josh, who is almost never grumpy, was hungry and taking on my grumpiness.
It sounds like everything I'm feeling is just normal "last few weeks" discomfort. The swollen legs, the painful crotch area, the shortness of breath and intense hunger while being unable to eat more than a few bites at a time - all normal. I don't have very high hopes that the baby will be early, so it looks like 2-3 more weeks of this fun time! Otherwise, everything is fine and normal, and Lucina even said "You have a good sized baby in here. Don't let anyone say vegans can't build good babies!"
The Bloob kicked them a bunch while they (Lucina and her assistant) were feeling around to check the baby's positioning. They said he/she is head down, nice and low, and only slightly posterior, so I need to spend some time in cat/cow pose to pull the spine forward. I do that at yoga, but I'm going to start doing it nightly at home too. It really feels the best right now anyway, it relieves some of the baby weight from my back for awhile.
I started packing my bag for the birth, so I've made some small amount of progress. Josh is feeling very high stress about getting the basement done in time (also contributing to the grumpiness, I think). He has been traveling both last week and this week, and it seems like being away from home is seriously frustrating his nesting urges right now. Today is his last day of being out of town, so hopefully he can get stuff done soon. Plus, neither of us love him being an hour and a half away at this point.

It seems as if I may have really lost our camera. It is nowhere to be found, and Josh is being nice about it, but we have only had it for 6 months or so. I feel really bad about losing it. I'm going to dig my old one out today to take some basement pictures and maybe another belly picture, and then do one last thorough house search for the missing one. I searched all over at work yesterday with no luck. We'll need to get a replacement before the Bloob comes I guess. What a pain!

I made myself a to-do list today, hoping that I can muster enough energy to get a few things done.
1. Laundry
2. Dishes (done!)
3. Vacuum
4. Grocery shopping (trader joe's AND fred meyer… we'll see if that happens.)
5. Clean up sewing table

I don't know if I can actually vacuum, because the vacuum cleaner is HEAVY. The Dyson beast that Josh has is no 7 lb Oreck like I used to have. And I wish I could just pay someone to do the grocery shopping for me. I think I need to keep moving though, even if I'm moving slowly!

37 weeks

I haven't had much time for blogging! I've started extreme nesting, only it's not happening at home, it's happening at work. I've been spending the last week trying to finalize every last detail and prepare for a staff meeting and just get everyone settled and ready for me to be gone. It's a surprising amount of work! Turns out, I do the job of 4 people. Or maybe 3. Or 3.5. I'm really not sure how long I will need, or want, to be away from work, so I'm planning for a month for sure, and making sure that if something comes up, it can be longer than that.

I misplaced our camera (it's somewhere around here…) so I don't have any pictures to post, but the basement is very close to being livable. Sheetrock and paint are done, subfloor is down, and now we just need to put up doors and lay the cork floor, which I can happily help with! Josh is getting a little stressed about it, since the Bloob could really come at any time now, but I think we'll be fine.

This last part of the pregnancy has been the most interesting - the baby is so big and solid, and it's weird knowing that he/she could be fine on his/her own now. Still lots of hiccuping and poking elbows and knees and feet. I'm still feeling really good - full of energy and motivation one minute and ready for a nap the next. Eating is kind of a pain, I can barely fit any food in my stomach and when I do, it gets hard to breathe. It's all so crowded. But I'm mentally really food focused and just want food constantly!

I've also managed to pack the baby's bag for the trip to the birthing center, but can't get around to packing mine. Seems overwhelming for some reason.

We also took our first birthing class on Saturday, which was taught by my prenatal yoga teacher. It was really fun, and it made us both excited about the whole thing. We should probably be more scared, but I think we both feel pretty confident that we can handle whatever comes our way. We have another class this Saturday at the birthing center. And we have another midwife appointment with Lucina tomorrow! I'll check in again after that.

27 days to go!!!

That's less than a month! I'm still feeling every overwhelmed by all of the STUFF from the baby shower. I'm so happy to have everything we need, but can't believe how much stuff that actually is.
I pretty much slept for 12 hours two days in a row after everyone left. I'm not very good at letting myself rest, which is something I'm really going to have to learn when the baby comes. Everyone says nap when the baby naps, but I'm just not much of a napper!

I had another midwife appointment today. It feels weird to go weekly now, since nothing much has changed. My blood pressure and urine were all fine, and the Bloob is still head down and back forward so, whew. Josh is out of town, so I went by myself today. We go again next Wednesday, and I think he will be back for that one.

Other than that I have very little to report! Working away on thank you notes, it's actually a nice down-time activity. Here are a couple pictures Katie took at the shower. There are more on her flickr page at www.flickr.com/nowheykatie